Repelling Ticks & Fleas Before They Infest Your Yard

It is that time of year again!! Fleas and ticks are starting to be reborn just to terrorize us and our beloved animals. They can be very dangerous giving your animal heart worms or lyme disease and just like with our own bodies we may not want to put harsh chemicals on our animals or our yards. (Some of those chemicals have been known to kill dogs/cats.)

There is good news!! You do not have to go broke treating your animals, yourself or your yard to repel these nasty boogers. You can make your own using natural ingredients at half the cost. Below are a few ways to keep the ticks off you, your pets and your yard.

Garlic

• Ticks HATE garlic so as my Grandmother and Ben Franklin use to say.... "An ounce of prevention is greater than a pound of cure." Plant garlic in your yard, around your yard or anywhere you do not want the ticks to live. Not only will these deter them from your yard, you will also have fresh garlic when you need it. You can also eat raw garlic or take garlic tabs so it is in your blood. They can smell it and will not attach themselves, if garlic is in your system (garlic tabs are safe for your dogs as well).

Neem Oil

• You can either use neem oil or soak neem leaves in hot water and then apply this on the skin.
• For Pets: Prepare a general flea and tick spray by mixing 2.5 ml (1/2 ounce) of organic neem oil with 1-2 ml (1/4-1/2 ounce) of mild soap or detergent and 2 cups water. For a stronger solution if there is a problem or the dog will be going into deep bug country, mix 5 ml neem oil, 2 ml mild soap or detergent and 2 cups water. Use warm, not hot, water to dissolve the oil. Mix water and soap first and then slowly add neem oil for flea and tick control. Add to sprayer and use immediately. Discard after use. Neem oil is unstable and breaks down after 8 hours. Mix new each time.
• Place a few drops of neem oil on palms and simply rub hands through your pet's fur for effective flea and tick control. Neem oil is best used this way for dogs, only, not for cats. For sensitive dogs, dilute the neem oil 1:10 in a light carrier oil like almond or jojoba and rub palms first. Then run hands thoroughly through the dog's coat for natural, effective flea and tick control.
• Warnings: Caution is advised when using neem oil on animals that are breeders or about to be bred. Use neem oil at half strength for flea and tick control. Do not treat cats with concentrated neem oilthat is left on the skin. Using neem leaf tea is far safer for felines.

Tea Tree Oil

• Tea Tree oil is a great repellent. Once mixed, you spray it on the skin or fur and rub in. I also make sure and pray it on our shoes and pant legs if we are going camping or into the woods so we don't carry home any piggy back riders.
• To make: Mix two ounces of tea tree oil in water and pour it in a spray bottle. Spray this regularly on
  your skin.
• You can also spray your yard area with this mixture.

 

Other effective natural remedies

• Natural herbs: Lavender oil, lavender plants, lemon Grass, peppermint or citronella are all very effective in keeping fleas off your yard. We make sure to have some every year and we have not had to use chemicals on our yard/ house or body for fleas, ticks or mosquitoes in 3 years now.
• A few more ways to repel fleas and ticks; eucalyptus, myrrh, rosewood, or lemon.
• Lemon: Take 6 lemons and cut in half. Boil these in a quart of water and steep for a few hours. Strain the solution and pour it into a spray bottle. Spray the solution on the pet’s fur but avoid the eyes.

These are just a few of the simple ways you can prevent an infestation of fleas or ticks in your living area and make the family pet a happy-go-lucky Fido instead of a miserable, itchy one.

Church Responds to Supreme Court Marriage Rulings

Salt Lake City — The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints released the following statement today regarding the decisions announced by the United States Supreme Court on cases involving marriage:

"By ruling that supporters of Proposition 8 lacked standing to bring this case to court, the Supreme Court has highlighted troubling questions about how our democratic and judicial system operates. Many Californians will wonder if there is something fundamentally wrong when their government will not defend or protect a popular vote that reflects the views of a majority of their citizens. 

"In addition, the effect of the ruling is to raise further complex jurisdictional issues that will need to be resolved.

"Regardless of the court decision, the Church remains irrevocably committed to strengthening traditional marriage between a man and a woman, which for thousands of years has proven to be the best environment for nurturing children. Notably, the court decision does not change the definition of marriage in nearly three fourths of the states."

Concern Over Changes to Home Storage Centers Unnecessary

NEWS RELEASE — 17 JUNE 2013

Over the past several weeks, misinformation and unnecessary concern has been circulating on blogs, over social media channels and by email regarding changes in operations at the Church’s home storage centers, which are located in the U.S. and Canada. No home storage centers are being closed, but the Church is making welcomed modifications in its operations at most of these centers that will help to better serve the needs of members of the Church, as well as significantly improve efficiency.

In all but 12 of the Church’s 101 home storage centers in the U.S. and Canada, patrons will no longer self-can products, but they may purchase these same items pre-canned or prepackaged at no additional cost.

The Church currently operates 101 home storage centers in the United States and Canada where food storage items such as beans, dry milk, wheat, rice and sugar may be purchased© All rights reserved.

These changes have been considered for some time as the Church has looked at the best way to provide home storage goods to Church members efficiently. Much of the discussion regarding this issue has suggested that this change is due to food safety regulation. While it has been a factor, the concern expressed regarding that issue has been overstated.

While many individuals have enjoyed self-canning at the Church’s home storage centers, the advantages of providing pre-canned or prepackaged goods include:
It’s more efficient and cost effective for the Church to produce and ship high-quality, pre-canned or prepackaged goods in bulk rather than ship the same goods and empty cans to a location where individuals can them on their own.
By offering the goods pre-canned or prepackaged, the Church utilizes less warehouse space.
Pre-canned and prepackaged operations allow for higher quality and safer preparation of home storage food. 

It is much more costly to maintain and upgrade facilities that must meet food production standards (such as in a self-canning operation) than it is to maintain a facility that simply distributes pre-canned and prepackaged food.

 
Volunteer personnel time can be used more efficiently.

The following 12 home storage centers will continue to offer self-canning for the time being as the Church continues to monitor the goods and services offered at home storage centers and makes adjustments as needed:
Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada
Mesa, Arizona
Boise, Idaho
Idaho Falls, Idaho
Carrollton, Texas
Lindon, Utah
Logan, Utah
Ogden, Utah
Salt Lake City, Utah (Welfare Square)
Sandy, Utah
Springville, Utah
St. George, Utah

The remaining 89 centers will provide pre-canned goods. A list of all home storage centers is available here.

A Miraculous, Little-Known Story About President Monson

Every time I see or listen to President Monson, I’m always reminded of (and deeply impressed by) his loving character and his private ministry.

Here’s a little-known story about him that touched my heart:

In 1971, when Mother was diagnosed with breast cancer, the doctors said she had less than a 20 percent chance of surviving two years. Mother did not know this. Dad did. I found out only because I overheard the conversation between my father and the doctors.

Months passed…it was stake conference, a regional gathering of church members that meets four times a year. My father was a member of the stake high council, a group of high priests who direct the membership on both organizational and spiritual matters. President Thomas S. Monson, one of the Twelve Apostles, directly beneath the Prophet, who at that time was Joseph Fielding Smith, was conducting interviews for the position of stake president.

Before the conference, President Monson met with my father privately, as he did with all councilmen. he asked him, if called, would he serve as stake president? My father’s reply was no. In a religion that believes all leadership positions are decided by God, this was an unorthodox response.

“Brother Tempest, would you like to explain?”

My father simply said it would be inappropriate to spend time away from his wife when she had so little time left.

President Monson stood and said, “You are a man whose priorities are intact.”

After conference, my father was returning to his car. He heard his name called, ignored it at first, until he heard it for a second time. He turned to find President Monson, who had put his hand on Dad’s shoulder.

“Brother Tempest, I feel compelled to tell you your wife will be well for many years to come. I would like to invite you and your family to kneel together in the privacy of your home at noon on Thursday. The Brethren will be meeting in the holy chambers of the Temple, where we will enter your wife’s name among those to be healed.”

Back home, our family was seated around the dinner table. Dad was late. mother was furious. I’ll never forget the look on his face when he opened the door. He walked over to Mother and held her tightly in his arms. He wept.

“What’s happened, John?” Mother asked.

That Thursday, my brothers and I came home from school to pray. We knelt in the living room together as a family. No words were uttered. But in the quiet of that room, I felt the presence of angels.

The mother of Terry Tempest Williams was healed and lived until 1987, sixteen years after President Monson had made the quiet, prophetic declaration that she would “be well for many years to come.”

Source: Williams, Terry Tempest. Refuge: an unnatural history of family and place. New York: Pantheon Books, 1991. Print.

Shelter: Choosing a Bug-Out Location

In prepper parlance, the term “bug out” refers to fleeing the dangers that ensue after a natural disaster or some man-made cataclysm causes a collapse of the social order. Indeed, at the first sign of trouble, a lot of preppers anticipate rushing off to a house and land in some isolated rural area, where they’ll be able to grow their own food, generate their own power, and stay out of the way of the chaos and mayhem that the rest of society is succumbing to.

But as the situation escalates, it may not be so easy to keep from avoid the danger. As grisly as it may be to think about the worst-case scenario, you have to be prepared for the possibility you’ll find yourself confronted by an onslaught of intruders who overwhelm your defenses—or that a sudden disaster such as a fire or flood will render your main retreat uninhabitable. If any of those bad things happen, you’ll be forced to flee a second time. That’s why it’s a smart move to have a back-up dwelling at another location where you can seek refuge. Such a spot also can serve as a rally point for survivors of an attack who need to regroup, tend to injuries, and re-arm themselves to retake their main homestead.

Here are some tips on setting up a second bug-out location.

• Safe Distance: You want your fallback location to be far enough away that you’re out of the line of fire. It could be unoccupied land, or else property owned by another friendly prepper who’s willing to provide refuge. Practical Preppers consultant David Kobler suggests having it at least several miles away from your main dwelling. To get there quickly, you’ll also need to have some sort of bug-out transportation. A utility vehicle with ample space is great, but a motorcycle, ATV, folding bicycle, or an adult tricycle with a basket for cargo may make it easier to slip away. Bugoutvehicles.net is a website devoted to various types of escape transportation.

• Providing Shelter:  A conventional trailer or camper van could serve as an emergency redoubt. Another option is a“tiny house” with just enough space for a bed. Some of these minimalistic dwellings are mounted on wheels, so they can be moved to another location if need be. It’s also possible to construct a temporary structure on the site, as this YouTube video illustrates.

• Set Up Caches:  Kobler advises burying or concealing a cache of food, water, first-aid supplies, and other survival equipment, such as flashlights, ponchos and multi-purpose buckets. Savvysurvivor.com provides this guide to preparing a supply cache, while Prepperideas.com offers a detailed how-to on building a cache gleaned from the military’s special forces manual. Modernsurvivoronline.com offers advice on how to conceal your cache.

• Giving the Signal to Flee:  Having a bug-out location or rally point prepared won’t do your community any good, unless people get word that it’s time to flee, and know where they should go to. Kobler advises equipping community members with handheld radios that they can use to communicate. But since there’s a chance that attackers may intercept your radio transmissions, it’s crucial to have everyone memorize a pre-arranged code word that indicates that it’s time to flee to the other site. Modernsurvivalonline.com offers this guide to survival communications gear.

If You Only Do Three Things:

• Have a means to escape.  It doesn’t matter if it’s a beat-up old mountain bike, as long as it gets you to safety
• Have a place to go that’s far enough away to be safe. You need to get at least several miles from whatever trouble has erupted, so you safely can regroup and figure out what to do next.
• Hide some supplies someplace.  Even if it’s just a metal canister or duffle bag with some preserved food, water, a flashlight, poncho and a survival knife, you’ll be glad to have it in an emergency.

10 Great Recipes for the Solar Cooker:

1.  I Don’t Want to Bean Hungry Bean Bake

2.  Lentil Me See If We Have Something To Eat Casserole

3.  Quick!  Cook All the Freezer Meat Stew!

4.  The Police Have “Desserted” Us, Peach Cobbler

5.  Crab All the Food At the Grocery Store
**Skip the frying pan and put some oil in your dish and lay the Crab cakes in it. Then put in Solar Cooker until hot and heated or spread in a dish and use as a dip.

6.  Did Grandma REALLY Eat Chicken Foot Soup?
**Recipe is in second paragraph

7.  Dark Disaster Dream Bars
**Cook in Solar Cooker until it looks done, moist but not too jiggly

8.  A Loaded .22 Baked Potato

9.  Squirrely Friends Should Stay At Someone Else’s House

10. TVP (The Vegetarian Penne)
**Substite the beef with TVP if desired.

Shelter: Generating Power

The ability to generate electricity is so integral to modern living that it’s strange to think that for most of human history, people lived without it. But in a crisis situation in which electric generating plants went offline for an extended period, preppers would need to generate their own juice to keep the lights on and their refrigerators and computers running. Fortunately, there are multiple technologies available to tap into natural, renewable energy sources and generate electricity, ranging from wind, solar and hydroelectric power to generators powered by biomass fuel.

Practical Preppers consultant Scott Hunt says it’s smart to have multiple systems for generating electricity from different sources. That way, you’ll remain up and running even if the wind dies down or the Sun goes behind a cloud—or the nation suffers an electromagnetic pulse attack, which not only could wipe out computers and communications, but also solar power-generating technology.

How much electricity do you need to generate? According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, the average U.S. residential utility customer consumed 11,496 kilowatt hours (kWh) or electricity annually. Tennessee had the highest annual consumption, at 16,716 kWh, while Maine had the lowest at 6,252 kWh. But odds are, you’ll be using considerably less electricity, since there won’t be any cable channels to watch on your old energy-hogging home entertainment system. Prepper expert Matthew Stein, author of the book When Technology Fails: A Manual for Self-Reliance, Sustainability, and Surviving the Long Emergency, advises that you can avoid overtaxing your resources by planning your energy use on a daily basis. You can observe the weather and see whether your solar battery is fully charged, and then plan which appliances you can run that day. Additionally, you can pick appliances and devices—a laptop computer instead of a desktop, for example, because they use less energy and have their own battery capability. Here are some sources and technologies that preppers can use to generate electricity.

• Solar:  Hunt says that houses should be built facing south with pitched roofs, so that they can be outfitted with solar panels. A $30,000 solar panel array optimally could provide you with about 11,000 kWh per year. Remember that you’ll need to equip your system with an inverter to convert the DC current generated by the solar panels to the AC that your appliances will need.

• Wind:  To keep up the average consumption, you’d need the equivalent of, say, nine WT6500 Honeywell wind turbines  (1,500 kWh apiece per year), which could set you back about $6,000 apiece. On the downside, wind power may require climbing a tower occasionally to keep your equipment maintained.

• Hydroelectric:  Setting up your own micro-hydro power plant, using a stream on your property, is an idea that’s been around for a long time. That’s evidenced by this 1978 U.S. Department of Agriculture primer, which is dated technologically, but still contains some useful guidance on how to calculate the energy potential of your water source. But for up-to-date information, you’ll probably want to consult a recent work such as 2010’s Serious Microhydro: Water Power Solutions from the Experts, edited by Scott Davis. According to Homepower.com,one advantage of hydroelectric power is that it tends to be more continuous and dependable than other alternative energy sources. Hydroelectric also is the cheapest in terms of startup investment, with systems available for as little as $4,000 to $6,500, according to equipment supplier backwoodssolar.com.

• Biomass: A generator that runs on biomass fuel—chunked cord wood, corn cobs, wood chips, tree branches, and the like—is another option. These are pretty pricy, with a system by Victory Gasworks running about $35,000.

If You Only Do Three Things:

• Get rechargeable batteries and a solar-powered battery charger. Prepper author James Wesley Rawles points out that a lot of sophisticated survival gadgetry will be useless if the batteries run down.
• Become more energy efficient.  If you don’t need as much, you won’t have to generate as much to sustain your lifestyle.
• Install a backup diesel generator. Be sure to put it outside your home so that you don’t fall victim to carbon monoxide.

Father's Day Video: Remember What It Takes to Be a Good Father

Cake Mix for Food Storage and Recipe!

If you enjoy something sweet every now and then, you might want to consider adding some cake mix to your food storage.  Some people may think this is a frivolous item, but some good 'easy to cook' comfort foods may come in handy to help keep everyone sane.  Plus, I believe in prepping what you eat and eating what you prep.  This is the surest way to have a store of food that you know how to cook, like to eat, and will eat.  This also means that you are rotating your food and using it.

There are lots of things that you can make with cake mix.  You can make cake pops, you can make cupcakes, you can make cake mix cookies, you can make cake batter waffles, and you can use cake batter to turn simple popcorn into a delightful dessert.  No oven?  No electricity?  You can make cake batter pancakes topped with some warm frosting (cause nothing goes better with cake batter pancakes than more sugar) with a frying pan over a wood stove or even a fire.  You can also use it to help out cornbread, and you can make brownies with chocolate cake mix.

As you can see its a very versatile item to add to your rotation.Anytime I can find something like cake mix, that has many uses, and that stores well, its a no brainer to add it to my food rotation.  You can safely keep a 1-2 year supply on your shelves and rotate them or you can stick them in long term storage for perhaps up to 5 years.  There are two main approaches you can take to cake mix.

Buy it in the Box.
For the most part I will buy mine in the box.  I wait for there to be a couple of coupons then I wait for the mixes to go on sale somewhere, ideally for .89 to .99 cents a box, then I apply the coupon which knocks at least half of that off.  I will buy as many as I have coupons for.  At .50 cents a box, you might be able to beat that by making your own mix, but not by much once you count for all the ingredients.  If you can't get the price per box down that low, you may want to consider making the mix from scratch.For those of you out there who are gluten free, Betty Crocker has several different types of gluten free boxed cake mix, as do several other different companies - but you guys are going to save the most money by making the mixes from scratch as food companies are still charging a premium for gluten free food.  Click here for a simple GF Yellow Cake Mix recipe.

With Food Storage 
I already have the ingredients needed for these mixes in my food storage already, if you don't plan on picking up some egg powder, and powdered milkfor your storage.  Some people add these ingredients to the mix prior to storage so when it comes time to cook it, all they have to do is add water and butter.  If the mix calls for butter or oil you can do a few things, you can either make sure you have enough butter and oil stored to get you through a disaster, you can add powdered butter or margarine to the mix, OR you can sub out the butter or oil for a bean puree.

Now before you wrinkle your nose, I have done this several times to make cakes a little more healthy and/or to make them vegan for friends of mine and it has tasted JUST FINE.  Really!  In a long term emergency, replacing butter or vegetable oil with some (soaked and cooked) bean puree, in cake mix will save that precious resource for other uses, it will also increase the amount of protein in the cake mix making even more useful in a situation where protein might be a luxury.  The amount of beans you would want to add is about 1/2 cup of bean puree per box maybe a tad more.  That is just about a can of beans, drained and rinsed and pureed.  Think black beans for chocolate cake and white beans for yellow cake.

From Scratch

Learning how to make cake mix yourself is a good thing to do whether your are storing it or not.  It's another exercise in self sufficiency and your end product will inevitably be more healthy than the store bought version.  Plus, in a long term disaster, you will eventually run out of pre-made mix, and if you want cake, you will have to know how to make your own from scratch.

THE MIX (this is based on Everyday Food Storage's recipe for yellow cake mix but I made a few modifications to make it work for me, keep in mind cake made from scratch will have a slightly different texture than the store bought stuff):

• 9 Cup flour total - If you are milling your own flour  from wheat berries you will want to reach for some soft winter wheat as you want the lower protein content of that type of wheat for cakes; you will also want to mill it a tad more fine than all purpose flour but you don't want it so fine that you make something like wheat starch.  If you are not milling your own flour, you can use 9 cups of pastry flour (which is almost just like cake flour but not bleached) or 9 cups of all purpose flour with one tablespoon of flour out of every cup replaced with a tablespoon of corn starch)  OR you can just use cake flour (I am not a huge fan of cake flour because it is bleached and so refined and, therefore, not real good for you but it does really make the best cakes).
  
  
• 6 Cup sugar - just regular sugar
  
  
• Heaping 2/3 Cup dry non-instant milk powder or 1 1/3 C. dry instant milk powder
  
  
• Heaping 1/4 Cup baking powder
  
  
• 4 tsp salt
  
  
• 1 tsp vanilla powder - I have found that vanilla powder is a little easier to  incorporate into baking mixes for storage.
  
  
• 1 1/3 Cup dry egg powder (this assumes the egg powder ratio is one large egg = 2 Tbs dry egg powder + 1/4 Cup. water, if your brand of egg powder is different you will have to adjust the recipe).
   

Combine ingredients thoroughly and store in an air tight container.  You can mix this up - freeze it a couple of times to kill any dormant bugs in the flour and seal it in a Mylar bag with an oxygen absorber.  Don't forget to write the type of cake mix and the cooking instructions on each package.  Or you can mix it up as you need it, if you are already stocking all the ingredients.

Using the Mix:

• 4 1/3 Cup  yellow cake mix (make it a heaping 4 1/3 Cup if you used instant milk powder)
• 1/2 Cup softened butter or bean puree
• 1 3/4 Cup  water
• 1 tsp vanilla (or 1/2 tsp of vanilla powder)

Heat oven to 350 degree F.  Grease bottom and sides of 9×13 pan, two 9×9 pans,  or two 8×8 round pans.  Beat all ingredients with electric mixer on low speed for 30 seconds, then beat on high speed 3 minutes.  Pour into prepared pans and bake 9×13 35-40 minutes, 9-inch 25-30 minutes, 8-inch rounds 30-35 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

Public Domain Image

Everyday Food Storage suggests these variations:  Add 1 Cup freeze dried fruit hydrated in the 1 3/4 Cup water to make it fruit flavored.  OR my variation: add some fruit jam which you made yourself in-between the layers of cake! You can also experiment with adding jello or kool-aid to flavor and color your cake mix.

Click here for a Chocolate Cake Mix recipe also from Everyday Food Storage!

Life Straw: a portable, affordable water filter

 In the world of survival and preparedness, there are many excellent choices for filters that provide safe water. The Life Straw stands out as unique because of its portability, simple design, effectiveness, and price point. This month I had the chance to try out a Life Straw and right away noticed 3 very likable features.

First, it was lightweight (weighs only 2 ounces!) and has a neck cord to keep the filter handy when outdoors. Our family likes to camp, and of course my son loves the idea of slurping water from a stream, but what mother in her right mind would let her child do that?? A Life Straw strung around his neck would allow him to enjoy a swig of wilderness water and the freedom to play Bear Grylls without the worry.

In the case of an emergency evacuation, a Life Straw around your neck would provide an immediate means of purifying water on the go without having to lug heavy water bottles, if you live in an area with plentiful water sources.

I could totally see myself doing this. The second impressive feature was the filter’s effectiveness against scads of waterborne bacteria and parasites and the fact that it exceeds the EPA’s standards. Just for fun, the kids and I filled a drinking glass with muddy water (mud courtesy of our backyard) and put the Life Straw through a real-life test. Of course the kids were too squeamish to drink the water, but I took the challenge. The water tasted just fine, without even a hint of mud. It wasn’t exactly scientific, but the results were impressive.

I was impressed with the price point, around $20. At this price, it would be easy for most families to add a Life Straw to every emergency kit and even keep one in the car and with camping equipment. If you live in an area prone to flooding, you definitely need a way to purify water.

The Life Straw is BPA free, can filter up to 264 gallons of water, and has a 1 year warranty.

You can find the Life Straw in retail stores around the country.

By the way, while you’re checking out the Life Straw page, take time to browse through the other products and articles on the EarthEasy website!

Why Preparing is Essential – Economic Collapse

Many Preppers believe that the most likely reason they will be using their stored goods will be a natural disaster.  It may happen.  But let me tell you what I believe is the most likely purpose those goods will need to be used; widespread financial crisis.

The food that preppers have stored will be used in lieu of weekly purchased store-bought food, not because the food at the store is not available, but because it is too expensive.  It will be used on an ongoing, regular basis (and not in response to a specific event like a natural disaster), while others financially struggle to buy food because they don't have stored goods.  Preppers will start using a piece of rope to hang clothes to dry, instead of paying increased electric bills from an electric clothes dryer.  Self-defense items will be employed by preppers to defend their goods they had the foresight to store, instead of defending oneself.  The bad guy those self-defense items will be used against will not be the usual criminal-type, but one of the many people who did not prepare for the future state of the economy.  (As an aside, I think the secure garden will prove to be the best prepper investment of them all.).

Just like the USA and the former USSR, the rest of the world learned that economic conditions proved more important than how many nuclear warheads each had.  In the future, preppers and non-preppers will learn that our personal wealth and how we used it will be the critical factor in a person’s quality of life on a personal level.

Why do I say this?  It is because it looks like there is no way out of our current economic malaise and our long-term problem -- our staggering national debt.  We simply do not have the political will to do what is necessary, never mind be able to agree on what plan to implement, to save ourselves from the coming economic pain.  Recent events indicate that the national debt will increase even more rapidly.

Ben Bernanke, Chairman of the Federal Reserve, recently announced a new quantitative easing plan, known as QE3, coming after QE1 and QE2.  QE3 plans to purchase 40 billion a month in mortgage-backed securities, in addition to continuing what has become known as operation twist.  This will continue to increase the money supply.  However, commentators debate the amount of  inflation now, and how much will come in the future.  The government says there is hardly any inflation, but as any grocery shopper will tell you, items, especially food, are costing more.  Regardless of what the official government numbers and economists say about the extent of inflation, you can count on food prices to soar in the future as the Federal Reserve carries out its latest plan.

 

With regard to employment, this dichotomy between  government's official numbers, and what people really experience, continues.  For instance, the “unemployment rate” the government concedes, is still high, but is down from early 2009.  Before you rely on this and think things have really improved, realize that even the numbers show more people have left the job force in the past few years than in a long while.  We now have a job force the size it was 40 years ago. That means the numbers show many people have simply given up trying to find a job. But no matter how you interpret or spin the unemployment numbers, what anyone recently laid off or successful in finding a job can tell you, the jobs aren’t what they used to be.

Yes, you may be able to find one, but it will not come with the same pay, benefits, or stability provided in prior job.

With inflation poised to rise, and unemployment (real wages, which at best are treading water) the overall economy and the growth rate will be dragged down.  For everyday folks, this means a continuing grind to get by.  As the paycheck shrinks from lower real wages, and the value of the paycheck decreases from inflation, the budget will get tighter and tighter.  Prepare for the chronic economic struggle that will lead to preppers employing their skills and goods unto everyday living

Vengeance Cometh Speedily....D&C 112:24-26

Behold, vengeance cometh speedily upon the inhabitants of the "earth, a day of wrath, a day of burning, a day of desolation, of weeping, of mourning, and of lamentation; and as a whirlwind it shall come upon all the face of the earth, saith the Lord.

“And upon my house shall it begin, and from my house shall it go forth, saith the Lord;

“First among those among you, saith the Lord, who have professed to know my name and have not known me, and have blasphemed against me in the midst of my house, saith the Lord.” 

D&C 112:24-26

Shelter: Choosing a Location

When it comes to having a shelter in which to ride out a collapse, that location is probably more crucial than what sort of structure you build.

• Distance From Major Population Centers:  Prepper experts such as Scott Hunt envision that heavily populated metropolitan areas would quickly become cauldrons of chaos in the event of a breakdown of society. So ideally, a prepper wants to be as far away from those places as possible. Modernsurvivalblog.com provides this U.S. population density map as a guide. Hunt, however, advises that living in a small town, where a prepper has strong bonds with like-minded neighbors, is a viable alternative to hiding out in the wilderness.

• Can the Site Be Defended?  We might think that being on high ground would give preppers an advantage against attackers, but Hunt says that a settlement on an elevation is easy for potential attackers to spot. “It’s easy to see those lights on top of a hill,” he explains. Additionally, if a hillside compound lacks energy sources, water and fertile soil, preppers eventually are going to have to venture outside their defensible perimeter, making them vulnerable. It’s better to pick a low-lying site that has adequate resources. Ideally, the site should be big enough that the actual dwelling can have a substantial open area around it, so that attackers can be spotted before they have a chance to get to your door.SurvivalRealty.com offers a listing of real estate agents and properties suitable for prepper retreats.

• Access to Water Resupply Sources: Hunt says that picking a property with access to potable water is a must. But don’t just assume that because there’s a well on the property, the water is safe to drink. From the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, here’s a guide to private ground water wells.

• Food Sustainability:  You not only need both space to plant, but also soil that’s fertile enough to grow crops. That’s why it’s vital to have soil samples tested by a reliable professional lab before you buy a property. You want to look at factors such as the levels of organic matter in the soil, which indicate its ability to contain nutrients, soil pH, and cation exchange capacity, the measure of the soil’s ability to retain calcium, magnesium, potassium, and nitrogen combined with ammonium. Seeds of Change provides this guide to conducting and understanding soil tests.

• Energy Resources.  Unless you’re planning to revert to an early 19th-century lifestyle, you need the ability to generate electricity to power appliances, tools and communications equipment, and a source of heat for staying warm in wintertime, cooking, and sterilizing water is crucial to survival. Hunt preaches the desirability of having multiple options for energy. Look for a property that allows your shelter to have southern exposure to the Sun will allow you to generate electricity from solar panels. How much energy you can get out of solar depends upon your region, as well; the U.S. Department of Energy offers this solar energy potential map that shows how different areas across the nation stack up.

• Additionally, Energybible.com advises you to take a look at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory’s regional wind map for your area and determine typical average wind speeds. If you have an average wind speed of at least 10 miles per hour, that’s enough to power a small turbine for generating electricity. If you’ve got a stream on your property, you also may be able to harvest hydroelectric power from it. This how-to article on the Green Energy Ohio website notes that you need a drop of at least two feet in the falling water, and a high volume of water flow for it to work. If you’ve got the right conditions, though, the article notes that a typical micro-hydro turbine can generate as much as 30 kilowatt hours of electricity per day, which is two to three times what the average American home uses.

If You Only Do Three Things:

• Pick a spacious spot in a valley, with a stream and woods nearby. That way, you’ve got security, water and a potential energy source.
• Check out the water and soil. You’re not going to survive for long, if you don’t have potable water to drink. And if you can’t grow food, ditto.
• The further away from big cities, the better. Hunt and other prepper experts predict that heavily populated metropolitan areas will become the most dangerous places to be.