Water Purification for Preppers

Every prepper knows the importance of water. Quite simply, you can’t live without it. Within three days, dehydration will take hold and death soon thereafter. The procurement and catchment from a water source is step one. Water Purification is step two.

The water you’re hoping to drink might be riddled with parasites or bacteria particles, you can’t afford to skimp on water purification. In the very circumstances that put you in contact with questionable water (being in the wilderness, surviving or recovering from a disaster) the last thing you want to do is to get sick with dysentery. 

For preppers, having an adequate water supply requires three steps: Catchment, Purification + Storage.  Last month we shared our methods for Water Storage here on APN:

This month we will deal with the basics of water purification as an integral part of a preparedness plan. 

METHOD ONE: BOILING WATER

This is one of the most common water purification methods in a survival situation. Place the water you wish to purify into a pot. Try to strain the water through a cloth or an unused coffee filter. Place the pot on the stove and turn the stove on to high. When water boils, any bacteria that may have been living in it will be killed, thus ensuring that you do not get sick when you drink the water.

Watch for rolling bubbles. When bubbles begin to appear, it means that the water is boiling. Let the bubbles continue for a solid five minutes for the heat to have the most effect upon any bacteria that may have been living in the water. Boiling water for 15 to 20 minutes will kill off 99.9% of any organisms living in the water. It also removes most chemicals by vaporizing them. However, be aware that boiling the water will not remove solids, metals, or minerals.

Remove from heat, carefully.  Let the water sit and settle. You do not need to do this if you are boiling water that came from a tap and you feel sure that there are no solid items, minerals, or metals in the water. If you let the water settle, any items in the water will sink to the bottom naturally, allowing you to drink the pure water from the top.

METHOD TWO: PURIFICATION TABLETS

Using purification tablets or drops is the easiest water purification methods. You can purchase these drops or tablets at sporting goods and adventure stores. Keep in mind that this is not the best tasting method, but protection from bacteria is worth a bitter taste in your mouth. 

Iodine tablets, often used by campers, are the most commonly sold purifying tablets, but you can also use chlorine tablets with the same result. These tablets are most effective when the water you are purifying is 68 degrees F (21 degrees C) or higher. These chemical tablets will kill bacteria living in your water. We recommend the Potable Aqua Water Purification Tablets.

Strain the water if it has large particles floating around in it. You can do this by pouring the water through a cloth and into the bottle or container that you will be purifying your water in. The cloth acts as a strainer that removes the particles floating in the water. 

Place the tablets in the water. If your tablets or drops came with instructions, follow these now. In general, you will want to use one tablet for each quart or liter of water you wish to purify. Be aware that these tablets generally have an expiration date. If you use them after this date, they are much less likely to be effective. Always check the bottle before using these tablets. Mix the tablets into the water until they dissolve. They must be completely dissolved so that they can mix most effectively with the water you are purifying. 

Wait 30 minutes before drinking the water, as the tablets need that time to effectively kill any bacteria in the water. You should also be aware that tablets are generally less effective in water that is very cold. If the water is 40 degrees F, you should wait at least an hour after the tablets have dissolved before drinking the water. You can place the water in the sun to warm it up before using the tablets if you have the time to do so. 

To lessen the strange taste the tablets give the water, add flavoring to the water (if it is available to you.) Powdered lemonade mixes or a pinch of salt will mask the tablet flavor.

METHOD THREE: USING A WATER PURIFIER

Use a pump purifier. You can use these types of purifiers in conjunction with a canteen or water bottle when out in the wilderness. These pumps are generally hand held and made out of a synthetic or ceramic cartridge. Most filters have two separate hoses, one for clean water, the other for dirty water. On the hose that pumps the dirty creek or lake water, you may find a foam flotation device that keeps the hose from sinking to the bottom and sucking up the silty bottom water. The pump will have a plunger or lever that can be pulled and pushed so that water is sucked up, run through a series of filters within the plunge, and then pumped out and into your water bottle. 

Buy a water bottle with a built in purifier. You can now buy water bottles that have their own filters already built in. These work much like the pumps in that they run the water through a filter before dispensing the water into the bottle.

Try out a gravity fed purifier. These are filters like the Katadyn Base Camp Water Filter. 

As the name suggests, these filters use gravity to pull the dirty water through a filter and into the reservoir that contains clean water. To use this purifier, all you have to do is pour unpurified water into the dirty water section, and wait until all of the water has run through the filter. Often, these filters will have two sections–one for dirty water, and the other for clean. These filters are best used at home or at a campsite as they are generally pretty large and would be a pain to tote around in the wilderness.

For your bug out bag, we strongly recommend the LifeStraw Personal Water Filter

METHOD FOUR: 

BLEACH/WATER PURIFICATION METHOD

If using Chlorine/Clorox, use a non scented and non soapy version. Use about six drops per gallon (or two drops per liter/quart). Mix and let set for at least five minutes. The six drops per gallon ratio is the best and proper mixing ratio. However, two drops in a liter or quart sized bottle is overkill but much safer than adding just one drop. When able, work with gallon or larger volumes of water (try to avoid working with just quart or liter volume sizes of water such as canteens or refilled soda bottles).

The active ingredient in liquid bleach, sodium hypochlorite, is very sensitive to high heat and freezing, but under normal home storage conditions, it should still perform well for nine to twelve months. Which brings us to an excellent alternative.

METHOD FIVE: 

CALCIUM HYPOCHLORITE, POOL SHOCK

The suggestion of using Calcium Hypochlorite, or Pool Shock as an alternative to liquid bleach was brought to my attention by APN contributor Dan Wolfe.  Here is what Dan wrote for APN in February 2014:

Calcium Hypochlorite Granular 68% is actually better for storing water then using liquid bleach, because of its longer shelf life. It is generally sold in two forms, dry and hydrated. Although the hydrated is safer to handle the dry granular can have an indefinite shelf life (a yellow white solid which has a strong smell of chlorine). It can be purchased by the common name as “pool shock”.

The thing to watch for when buying pool shock is if they add anti-scaling agents (water softeners), you want a 68%-78% calcium hypochlorite without the water softeners added, although calcium chloride is often added as well.

One pound of granular Calcium Hypochlorite Granular 68%  will treat up to ten thousand gallons of water (37854.1 litres). The process is rather simple. First you make a solution of the Calcium Hypochlorite(approximately 1 teaspoon) to two gallons of waters (8 litres). Do not drink the solution! The ratio for stored water is 1:100, one part solution to 100 parts water.

METHOD SIX: 

SURVIVAL SKILLS:  MAKING A SOLAR STILL

A solar water still is a simple of way to create distilled water using the heat of the sun. As illustrated below, and in the step by step instructions, you create a barrier using a plastic sheet to trap moisture in the form of evaporation from humid soil. The impure water outside the container is evaporated by sunlight shining through the clear plastic. The purified water collects on the underside of the plastic sheet and then drips into the container. Wallah, pure distilled water!

1: Dig a hole in the sand or dirt that is deep and wide enough to hold your water tight container.

2: Place this container in the center of the hole.

3: Fill the gaps surrounding the container with anything wet, such as vegetation or even urine.

4: Place your plastic sheet over the hole.

5: Anchor the sheet in place with larger rocks around the edges of the hole.

6: Place a small rock in the center of the plastic, just over the container.

7: Condensation will occur on the underside of the plastic and run down to the center. It will drip into the container filling it with distilled drinking water

Pure as the driven snow my friends. Drink up!

8. Jagged Ladder Paracord Survival Bracelet

This is a compact weave that is sturdy but not bulky.

ECONOMIC DEATH SPIRAL: MORE AMERICAN BUSINESSES DYING THAN STARTING

In a stunning Tuesday report, Gallup CEO and Chairman Jim Clifton revealed that “for the first time in 35 years, American business deaths now outnumber business births.”

Clifton says for the past six years since 2008, employer business startups have fallen below the business failure rate, spurring what he calls “an underground earthquake” that only stands to worsen as lagging U.S. Census data becomes available.

“Let’s get one thing clear: This economy is never truly coming back unless we reverse the birth and death trends of American businesses,” writes Clifton.

Indeed, the numbers are striking. Contrary to the oft-cited 26 million businesses in America figure, Clifton says 20 million of these so-called “businesses” are merely companies on paper with zero workers, profits, customers, or sales. In reality, America has just 6 million businesses with one or more employers–3.8 million of which have four or fewer employees. In total, these 6 million U.S. companies provide jobs for more than 100 million people in America.

Of the 2.2 million job-creating companies with five or more workers, the numbers break down accordingly:

There are about a million companies with five to nine employees, 600,000 businesses with 10 to 19 employees, and 500,000 companies with 20 to 99 employees. There are 90,000 businesses with 100 to 499 employees. And there are just 18,000 with 500 employees or more, and that figure includes about a thousand companies with 10,000 employees or more. Altogether, that is America, Inc.

The Gallup CEO says the numbers paint an ominous portrait of America in a dire state of decline.

“I don’t want to sound like a doomsayer, but when small and medium-sized businesses are dying faster than they’re being born, so is free enterprise,” says Clifton. “And when free enterprise dies, America dies with it.”

How to Start a Fire with Char Cloth | Survival Basics

The Triangle of Fire

Fire is a big deal and a necessary component not only to our senses, but to survival itself.  That said, most people have terrible fire skills.  It is not that fire skills are difficult to learn, mind you.  It is just that in today’s world of electronic cooking gadgets, pre-packaged meals, and grab and go dining, using a fire to do something basic like cook seems like a lot of work and a plain nuisance compared to get getting the job done with electricity, natural gas or, those plastic cards we carry around in our wallet. As a result, very few people would actually know how to start a fire even if they had to.

Today I want to get down to the basics of how to start a fire–namely the basics of simply starting a fire and getting it going with a minimum of fuss. Let us start with rule #1 of fire making.

There are three parts to fire:  Oxygen, Fuel, and Heat.  This is referred to as the Triangle of Fire.  For the visually oriented, it looks like this:

The Triangle of Fire

How to Start a Fire with Char Cloth

Building a fire is something to be taken quite seriously and since we are talking about the basics, remember, never build your fire indoors, except in a real fireplace.  Every winter, dozens of people die of carbon monoxide poisoning due to indoor heating with charcoal briquettes.  When that happens, the victims simply go to sleep and never wake up. The point being that outdoors confined to a fireproof area or in a real fire place is where fire belongs, period.

That said, the first step and some would say the most important step to having a good fire is getting it started.  You can purchase  a variety of fire-starting tools ranging from waterproof matches to Bics to all sorts of pre-package tinder, but for Prepper types, nothing beats the reliability of a simple magnesium flint and steel (I like the Swedish Firesteel).

One of the oldest and more reliable methods to start a fire is to make some char cloth and have it ready to go in your survival kit.  Char cloth you say?  What the heck is that?  Well to be honest, most city-dwellers have no clue what it is, how to make it, and even less how to use it. I know that until three years ago, I did not have a clue.

But no worries. Here is everything you need to know about making your own char cloth.

1.  You begin by finding a pair of old jeans that you’ve ripped and patched for the last time. You’ll cut patches of the fabric just the right size to lay flat inside an empty Altoid can.

Gaye cutting fabric for char cloth

2.  Once you’ve about filled the can up, you make a small nail hole on both the top and the bottom of the tin.

An Altoid tin for char cloth

3.  The next time you have your BBQ fired up, toss in the denim filled Altoid can and let it cook for 20 minutes or so.

Cooking your char cloth tin

Of course if you can also toss the tin containing denim into a real fire that is the ground or in your fire pit.   By the time the fire has cooled off to nothing the next day, the can will be cold and there no grill to clean. Easy peasy.

4.  Remove the tin filled with denim from the grill and let cool overnight.  If you used your BBQ, you will want to to wash the grill off thoroughly when you are done since remnants of the burning paint from the Altoids can will make an unsavory seasoning to the next piece of food thrown on the grill to cook.

Once cooled, your char cloth is ready to use

5.  To start a fire using char cloth, you simply take ½ a piece of the cloth and tear at it a little bit.  Strike your flint so that the sparks land on the tufts of thread which are charred and catch fire extremely easy under a wide range of conditions.  All it takes is for the char cloth to begin smoking a bit.

6.  The next step is to take some very fine shavings of wood (picture shaving a match-stick to get some small shavings) and toss them on to the char cloth and blow the char cloth so as to push the burning part into the wood.  After a few tries, you should be able to get a fire going easily this way.

7.  Once you get a visible flame going, you need to start moving up in the size of material burned.  What you want to do is roughly double the thickness of the wood each time you step up a size.  A typical progression can be char cloth setting off a bit of tissue, which sets off a few matchstick sized twigs, which set off half a dozen additional dry twigs about 1/8th inch in size.  Once these catch well, move up to four or five 1/4-inch pieces, then 1/2-inch pieces and so forth.

True, you can go about it in bigger steps, but if you’re trying to get a maximum fire in minimal time, it is best to work up the size of your fuel source gradually but quickly.  The focus should be on keeping big flame going.  And yes, a person can go from kindling to a shaved 2-by-4 but whether you could ever get that to a useful fire would be a long wait and “iffy”.  Reason being you want oxidizing surfaces next to each other so they feed energy into one another, creating heat.

Too much fuel, too soon, means not enough oxygen and no heat and no fire.  That is why you always stack your firewood in certain ways: popular X settings of fire burn primarily at the X because the one piece of wood heats the other and visa versa.

Other Ways to Start a Fire

There are a number of other methods that can be used to start a fire.  Here are a few.

If your bug-out-bag or survival kit includes a magnifying glass, with practice you can learn to touch off your char cloth that way.  Another suggestion and one that I have used often is to soak some cotton balls with a smear of petroleum jelly then store them in a tin or repurposed prescription bottle until fire-starting time.

The fire-starter I currently use is made up of  empty toilet paper tubes stuffed to the brim with dryer  lint.  I flatten the heck out of them, seal the ends, then store them in my pack until I need to start a fire.  It only takes a small bit of dryer lint to get things started so a single TP tube goes a really long way.

Here is one more fire starting tip:  take one of those “One Hour Fireplace” logs and slice it into 1” chunks.  Put 4 to 6 of these chunks in a plastic sandwich bag.  When the time comes, take one chunk, slice off a piece the size of your little finger, get it going, lean the rest of the chunk onto it, and now you can move right up to little finger sized kindling.

There are a couple of useful subordinate rules to follow if you decide to start a fire:

The fuel has to be quick enough to oxidize so as to support combustion. A lot of people don’t know that a mixture of rusty steel wool and aluminum power or filings will cause a violent kind of fire called a thermite reaction. Compared to this kind of mixture (definitely not something to be trifled with) a tamer kind of readily oxidized fuel is much easier to manage; paper and small pieces of wood come to mind.

The other thing is that oxygen is rarely an issue unless you get up in altitude and the air thins out. Then, you may have a problem.

When to Start a Fire

There’s no hard and fast rule about when to start a fire; the simple answer is “when you need it.”

Say, for example, some sort of disaster has occurred, the power is out, and you have a local health warning indicating that you should “boil water before drinking”.  That would be a good time to get a fire going (but as I mentioned earlier, not indoors, please).  And yes, local authorities have been known to tell you to boil water even though they are well aware that the power is out.

When it comes to building a fire, the best advice I can give you is to begin honing your fire-making skills and practice this skill on a regular basis.  Learn to start a fire now, when you can do it for sport rather than necessity.  Practice the basics of getting your fire going either using char cloth, petroleum-jelly soaks cotton balls, dryer lint, or something else.  Also learn to use a fire-steel, even if you have plenty of matches and lighters.

DIY Wood Gas Stove - How To Make A Wood Gas Stove – Compact & Efficient!

A portable stove in your bug out bag will ensure that you can prepare food to get you through the first critical 72 hours. You don’t even need to buy a cheap, light one because you can make your own little stove from a pair of cans. Apart from being super inexpensive, it uses wood for fuel! Keep reading to learn how to build your own wood gas stove.

Tools and materials needed:

2 used/empty tin cans, one large, one slightly smaller can opener sheet metal shears/snips round file power drill and 3/16″ and 3/8″ bits

1. Cut the top off.

Remove the top of the large tin can. Remove the labels on the cans, if there are any. 

2.  Trace the small can.

With both cans upside down, place the small can on top of the big one. Trace the diameter of the small can along the bottom of the big can with the marker. 

3. Cut the circle out.

Use the shears to punch a hole in the bottom of the can. Start cutting from there and work your way towards the edge of the marked circle. 

4. Smooth out the edge.

Remove the cutout. Smooth out the edge with the round file. 

5. Drill holes around the big can.

Take a small drill bit and use it to make holes around the upper perimeter of the can. 

6. One more row.

Drill another row of holes between and below the first. Use the 3/8″ bit to make the holes bigger. 

7. Put holes on the bottom of the small can.

Set the big can aside. Take the small can and drill holes with the 3/16″ bit on its bottom as shown. 

8. Drill holes around the small can.

Drill another set of pilot holes around the small can, similar to Step 6 and 7. 

9. One row for the top.

Drill a single row of small holes around the top. 

10. Two into one.

Put the two cans together.   Done!   Creating this little stove can put your handyman skills to the test but the end result is definitely worth it. You saved some money and you also helped Mother Earth by recycling/reusing the material. Wood as fuel is also renewable. Best of all, it’s a fun activity!

What is the Book of Mormon? Video created by 3 returned missionaries answers the question.

Oooops... Is Citi The Next AIG? We Are Talking TRILLIONS Now.

Earlier today, when we were conducting a routine check with the Office of the Currency Comptroller's on the total notional amount of derivatives held at the Big 4 banks in the context of the "JPMorgan break up" story, we found something stunning: using the latest, just released Q3 OCC data, JPMorgan is no longer America's undisputed derivatives king. Well, it still is at the HoldCo level, where it is number one in terms of notional derivatives with $65.5 trillion, but when one steps a level lower, namely the FDIC-insured commercial bank (the National Association or N.A.) level, something quite disturbing emerges. This:

As the chart above, which references Table 1 in the Q3 OCC report, shows Citigroup, or rather its FDIC-insured Citibank National Association entity, just surpassed JPM and is now the biggest single holder of total derivatives in the US. Furthermore, as the charts below show, while every other bank was derisking its balance sheet, Citi not only increased its total derivative holdings by $1 trillion in Q2, but by a whopping, and perhaps even record, $9 trillion in the just concluded third quarter to $70.2 trillion!

Here is Citi in context:

What is the reason for the surge in total derivative exposure? was it futures, options, forward or CDS? Neither. The answer: OTC traded swaps...

... which soared by $5 trillion in Q2 and over $8 trillion - or a massive 20% in just one quarter- in Q3 to a whopping $49 trillion, $16 trillion more than the OTC swaps held by JPMorgan or Goldman Sachs, and more than double the swaps held by Bank of America!

And that's not all: perhaps what is most bizarre is that Citigroup is the one bank whose HoldCo holds less derivatives, or $64.8 trillion, than its FDIC-insured N.A. OpCo which has $70.3 trillion in derivative notional exposure. For those wondering: this was not the case in the second quarterwhen the HoldCo ($61.8 trillion) held more derivatives than Citi's FDIC-insured bank ($61.1 trillion).

Then we started thinking:

Citigroup... swaps... Citigroup... swaps...

and a lightbulb click, because we remembered that it was none other than Citigroup that crafted the legislation on the swaps push-out provision which passed Congress without nary a peep from either side of the aisle, and which put taxpayers on the hook for FDIC-insured derivative exposure - and in Citi's own case a soaring $70 trillion as of September 30, 2014:

Schrade SCHF26 Review: Schrade’s Hidden Gem

For those of you familiar with Schrade knives you may have heard the buzz or recognize their beefy ultimate survival knife the SCHF9. I took out the SCHF9 for a review and brought along the SCHF26 as well as a few other Schrade knives. While I thought that the SCHF9 was going to be the best knife in the lot for the money, I was quickly drawn to the SCHF26.

Before I jump into why I fell in love with this knife, let me run down the specs of the SCHF26. The knife is 10.4” overall with a cutting edge of 5.4”. The knife features quarter inch 8CR13MOV sharpened to absolute perfection with TPE rubber handle scales. The knife features jimping on the blade and around the handle’s full-tang design. The knife comes in at a hefty 13.6 ounces. You can find this knife for a street price of around $30.

I found myself analyzing this knife and not thinking very highly of it when I saw the steel was 8CR13 and the no-thrills nylon sheath it comes with. If I am honest, I usually try to stay away from survival knives in the $30 range for obvious reasons. I figured that the intended purpose of this knife was to be the baby brother to the SCHF9 at a lower cost. Boy was I wrong.

Once I started putting this knife through its paces I realized that it had all the features I loved about the 9 and made it more user friendly in the 26 model. The handle scales are significantly smaller, but still fit well in big hands while accommodating smaller hands at the same time. The handle is also more comfortable during longer periods of use by a mile compared to the 9. One of the biggest complaints seen on the SCHF9 is that the handles were too big for people with smaller hands and had some hot spots with extended use. The 26 tackles those problems head on.

Another concern was the 8CR13MOV steel used in the knife. This steel is typical of budget pocket knives and is known to be softer steel that often dulls quickly with extended use. Although this seems to be an issue, Schrade has a phenomenal heat-treat on this knife allowing it to stay sharp even with abuse. It also helps that the steel is quarter inch, making for a thicker knife capable of holding that edge. The best part of the 8CR13 is that it is quickly honed in the field acquiring a scary sharp edge with ease.

I grew to love this blade very quickly. The recurve portion of the blade made for great carving and smaller camp tasks such as making tent pegs and feather-sticking fatwood for my fire. The belly of this knife is an incredible slicer that is capable of felling trees and batoning wood. The blade stood up the abuse without the edge rolling or chipping out on me. The black powder coating of this knife took a real beating and stood up to some of the brutally hard wood I processed it with.

The handles are very comfortable and allow the user to hold and position their hands for different knife positioning. Even with extended use, the handles did not create any hot spots on my hand with or without the use of gloves. The handles texturing aids in a comfortable grip that channels water and dirt, allowing the user to always have maximum control of the knife at all times.

Even though the sheath of the knife is not the best I’ve ever used, I found it to be incredibly simplistic. The nylon sheath sports Velcro straps that keep the knife from falling out along with the plastic insert. The sheath also has rivet holes for a lanyard or leg tie down. A decent sized front pouch makes for a great place to store a mini survival kit, fishing gear, or a sharpening stone. If you’re crazy like my buddies and I, you’ll also find the pouch accommodates up to 50 rounds of .22 long rifle ammunition (a great survival round to carry!). Although I would have liked to have seen this knife in Schrade’s awesome kydex, I can live with the sheaths functionality.

What can I say; at $30 you absolutely cannot beat the value in this knife. Chopping, batoning, and feather-sticking are a dream with the SCHF26. The knife craves abuse and urns for outdoor trips, camping, and showing off to your friends. My only complaint with this knife is the sheath, but it still gets the job done. Even with the no-frills nylon sheath, one has to keep in mind the price point. I would rather have the price of the knife kept low as to allow me to acquire a custom sheath.

This is a fantastic blade at a great value. The SCHF26 demands respect and a place in your arsenal of knives. Throw it in a bug-out bag, take it camping, or bring it on your next outing! Find this knife online at Taylorbrandsllc.com or on Amazon and own a knife that will stand the test of time and may even save your life!

7. Extra Wide Paracord Survival Bracelet

This “dragon’s tongue” weave is extra thick, meaning that you have extra paracord on hand for emergencies.

6. Cobra Paracord Survival Bracelet

This bracelet is nice and rugged, giving you a good amount of paracord and strength with this weave.

Supplies you need:

• 10 feet of Paracord
• Side release buckle
• Tape Measure
• Scissors
• Lighter

Step 1:

Once you cut your paracord to the desired length (about 10 feet), seal the end using your lighter. You don’t want to be working with a frayed end. Now, measure your wrist size by taking one end of the paracord and wrap it around your wrist. Lay that section next to your measuring tape to see how many inches long your bracelet will be.

Step 2:

Let’s first attach the male buckle to the paracord. To do this, fold your piece of paracord in half and pull the ends through the bottom slot of the buckle.

Then pull the ends through the loop created by your paracord. Pull them all the way through until the paracord is secured around the buckle.

Pull the ends through the buckle.

Loop the ends of the paracord back through the loop.

Pull tight to secure around the buckle.

Step 3:

Now let’s attach the other end of the buckle. Pull the paracord through the slot on the buckle. Using your measuring tape, slide the buckle along the paracord until you reach you desired bracelet length.

For this example, the bracelet is 6.5 inches. Be sure to include the center of the male end of the buckle up to the end of the female buckle in your measurements. (See picture below)

Pull on the second buckle to the length you measured for your wrist.

You will start your bracelet from the buckle you just threaded.

Step 4:

Now we are ready to make our bracelet!

Pull the left strand under the center pieces and over the right strand.

Pull the right strand over the center pieces.

Pull the right strand over then under and through the left strand.

Pull each strand outward to tighten your first knot.

Step 5:

You made your first knot! Now let’s do the same thing, but start with the right strand.

Take the right strand and pull it under the center pieces and over the left strand…

 For the rest of the instructions from DIY Ready, click here.

65 Percent of Children Live in Households on Federal Aid Programs

The Census Bureau reported in a study released this week that 65 percent of American children lived in households taking aid from one or more federal program as of the fall of 2011.

"Almost two-thirds (65 percent) of children," said the Census Bureau, "lived in households that participated in at least one or more of the following government aid programs: Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC), Medicaid, and the National School Lunch Program."

How to be dependent on government is now one of the earliest life lessons America is teaching nearly a supermajority of children.

The percentage of children living in households participating in TANF, food stamps, WIC, Medicaid or the National School Lunch Program has been on the rise.

In 2003, according to the Census Bureau, there were a total of 72,658,000 children 17 and under in the United States, and 40,337,000 of these children — or 56 percent — lived in households receiving aid from one of more of these programs.

That included 30,023,000 children in the National School Lunch Program, 18,175,000 in households on Medicaid, 8,287,000 in households on food stamps, 4,808,000 in households on WIC, and 2,347,000 in households on TANF.

By 2011, there were 74,294,000 children 17 and under and 47,939,000 of these children — or 65 percent — lived in households receiving aid from one or more of these programs.

That included 34,959,000 in the National School Lunch Program; 26,350,000 in households on Medicaid; 17,321,000 in households on food stamps; 6,350,000 in households on WIC; and 2,279,000 in households on TANF.

Children living in households that have never taken federal assistance are now a minority in the United States. In the future, they will be among a minority of adults.

The new willingness among Americans to live on government largesse is matched by another trend: disregard for marriage and traditional family life.

As recently as 1970, according to the Census Bureau, 85.2 percent of American children were living with two parents.

Of the 74,294,000 children 17 and under in the United States in the fall of 2011, 50,442,000 — or 68 percent — were living with two parents. However, 3,760,000 of those children were living with two parents who were not married, leaving only 46,682,000 children — or 63 percent — living with two married parents.

"The economic status of children living with cohabitating parents more closely resembled single-parent families," the study said. After children living with a single parent, they were the most likely to be in poverty.

Among children living with one parent, 40.9 percent were in poverty. Among children living with two unmarried parents, 37.3 percent were in poverty. And among children living with a guardian (including a grandparent or another relative), 29.8 percent were in poverty.

But among children living with two married parents, only 14.0 percent were in poverty.

The data published in this Census Bureau study also suggests that disrespect for marriage and traditional family life is a homegrown product of the United States. Children who have at least one immigrant parent are more likely to live with two married parents.

Almost 73 percent of children who had at least one foreign-born parent, the study said, lived with two married parents. But only 59.8 percent of children whose parents were both born in the United States lived with two married parents.

The ultimate struggle for the future of America is not political or economic, but cultural. It is between those who believe in self-reliance and traditional family life and those who do not.