Hugh, Please be aware that if you must cancel membership that all claims must have been paid out first. They say that it takes 60 to 90 days to pay. If membership is canceled prior to payout, they do not pay. I was left with a $1200 bill when I canceled membership. There is one obscure sentence in their booklet that supports them not paying. – M.N.
JWR: I am not a spokesman for any health care provider, but I have had experience with one! Regarding the postings on Christian Health Care sharing programs, I have to weigh in. My wife is a member of the Christian Health Care Ministries program and has been for about three years. She selected a mid-level program and we just bite the bullet and make the monthly payments without fail, as hard as it sometimes is. Living in the Pacific Northwest/American Redoubt, we were not sure of available providers that would accept CHM, but we were in for a surprise! About …
Hugh: In response to a recent contributor’s comments on health care sharing ministries, I want to add my biased take. (Full disclosure, I am a member sponsor for Liberty HealthShare, meaning I make some money by referring people to their programs. However, I do recommend any of the various major health sharing ministries– Liberty, Samaritan, Medi-Share, and Christian Healthcare Ministries. I think most people will have a good experience with any of them, so long as they are properly informed and know what to expect.) The big concern raised in the recent post was that it might be difficult to …
Hello Hugh, Some time ago I read about Christian medical sharing ministries on SurvivalBlog. (My Experience in Expatriating to Panama, by Chuck Holton) I am retiring early at 61 due to a medical condition, and not wanting to use Obamacare I thought I had found my solution. I joined Liberty Health Share after researching them. They tell you they will help you establish a connection between them and your doctor. You fill out a form detailing your doctor’s office and send it back to Liberty. They then send correspondence to your doctor’s office. If your doctor does not respond to …
#4- Cedarwood (Organic-Atlas) This is a very useful but tricky oil that I would not recommend any pregnant women use. It can be ingested but needs to be an Atlas variety only. Others are toxic and cannot be ingested, so know your oils! This one is also an amazing calmer and is much more powerful, in my own experience, at soothing bug bites and stings than Lavender. If you have ever owned a Cedar chest, you know how amazingly effective it is at repelling bugs. It is also not an oil that will give away your presence if needing to …
I am going to lay out the very best oils in my opinion to have on hand in a “worst case” scenario or emergency situation. I have used (ran a business and used personally) essential oils for 17 yrs now. They are a part of my life, in home and business every day. I am giving my wisdom, gleaned from experience and much research on the uses and abilities of essential oils. Although there is no replacement for a well-trained medical professional, I realize sometimes life puts us all into situations where what we need isn’t always accessible. So here …
After years of dreaming, planning, saving, and sweating, you are finally ready to leave occupied territory and make your move to the American Redoubt. You have poured over maps, studied census data, consulted with real estate professionals, and talked to county planning and assessors offices. You now are down to your short list, but what about the water supply? Water can make or break your new homestead. “It’s no problem,” you say. You checked the well logs, and the general area has good producing wells of reasonable depth, or your selected property already has a well. What is a Well …
More and more individuals today are diagnosed with food allergies and sensitivities, and the market for foods which contain alternate ingredients is ever-expanding, reacting to the increasing demand for tolerable foods. There is a definite difference between a food allergy and a food sensitivity. Healthline.com describes the most common symptoms of a food allergy as hives, swelling, itching, dizziness, and anaphylaxis. Symptoms of a food sensitivity include bloating, diarrhea, constipation, cramping, and nausea. Regardless of the reaction, a person with an allergy or sensitivity to even common pantry staples must remain vigilant when shopping, cooking, and dining out. As one …
Selecting Plants for Tea and Tea Flavoring Actual tea of the green and black variety is camellia sinensis. The tender new leaves of this plant are picked for tea. Drying and Storing Tea Ingredients Tea and tea flavorings require that we overcome the same obstacles faced in safely preserving nutrients, flavor, texture, and general health benefits of any food. The culprits are oxygen, sunlight, moisture, heat, and unwanted consumers, like insects and mice. Traditional tea, herbal tea, and flavorings must be dried, stored in containers (preferably air tight ones, under a vacuum), and in darkness (away from UV light) to …
Hugh, Last July I sent out a warning about the duck population in Wisconsin. Last year, out of 40 hens only three hens reproduced and had 14 ducklings. The year before (2014), we had about 20 hens, and just about all had young, averaging 10 ducklings each. Avian flu pretty much wiped out reproduction last year and prompted my warnings about stopping the hunt that fall. Nobody listened! This year, the population of adult ducks is down about 75% from 2015 levels. So far, we have three hens that haven’t nested, five hens that have come off the nest with …
While “tea” is technically reserved for the plant camellia sinensis, in common language we often call many herbs by the name “tea”, especially when they are capable of being brewed into a flavorful beverage all by themselves. Additionally, there a many plants whose fruits, leaves, and flowers can be grown to add a variety of enjoyable flavors to traditional tea. Here are some we grow and use at our homestead: Chamomile Chamomile is probably one of my top three flavors for tea, and it has health benefits as a bonus! It has so many wonderful benefits besides being a flavor …
I grew up watching old movies. Doris Day was one of my favorite actresses. I loved her girlish bounce, playfulness, and the wink of her eye. So, I’m frequently reminiscent of her movie “Tea for Two” when I ask various members of the household if they’d like to join me in sharing some tea by asking, “Tea for two?”. I don’t really remember much about the movie since it has been such a long time since I watched it, but it became a common saying in my household, and it still is. However, we don’t just consume tea in individual …
Dear Editors, I saw this headline on the front of the “dead tree edition” of the paper this morning. Besides the coverage on your blog, this caught my eye because of a personal connection: A good friend of mine recently lost her mother in Venezuela. She was sent to the nearest hospital because of a problem with her heart and needed an operation to put in a stent. The hospital that she was checked into didn’t have all of the equipment that they needed to perform the operation on her. The nearest hospital with the equipment did not have all …
Wood Stove Cooking The same recipes that you use in the summer with a wonder oven you can also cook in the winter on a wood stove. The Ice House Keeping Food Cold or Frozen in the Hot Summer I do not have ponds or horses and buggies to move large blocks of ice during the winter, so I must improvise. During summer, when cutting and splitting firewood, this will be done over a tarp so that the sawdust can be collected and saved in buckets. When winter is full force, I have 10 each of the 20-gallon Rubbermade totes …
In 2007 the British Medical Journal polled doctors about what they considered to be the most important medical advance in modern history. While not necessarily a medical advance, clean water and sanitation—the number one answer in the survey—have undoubtedly prevented more early deaths than any other single advancement. The question for us is: What do we do to ensure we have clean water and to promote sanitation when TEOTWAWKI hits? The black plague killed over 75 million Europeans. Why? Rats and their fleas were the major source of spreading Yersinia Pestis– the cause of the black plague. Why were rats …
