Recipe of the Week: Cookie Sheet Baked Feta and Vegetables

…of the oven. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F. Combine the vinegar, rosemary sprig and honey in a small saucepan. Bring to a boil, lower the heat, and simmer until thick and syrupy and reduced to about 2 tablespoons, about 2 minutes. Set aside to cool slightly. Remove and discard the rosemary sprig. Carefully remove the hot baking sheet from the oven. Scatter the corn, peppers, zucchini and scallions on the baking sheet. Sprinkle with the red pepper flakes and 1 teaspoon salt. Drizzle with 3 tablespoons of the olive oil and toss. Nestle the slabs of feta in among the vegetables. Roast until the vegetables are tender and the feta is warmed through and softened, about 15 minutes. While the feta and vegetables are roasting, combine 1 cup water, 1 teaspoon salt and the remaining 1 tablespoon oil in a small saucepan. Bring to a boil and stir…




Protecting Electronics in Metal Military Surplus Ammunition Cans- Part 1, by J.T.

…or EMP (Electromagnetic Pulse) interference, including the likely effects from a geomagnetic solar storm. The solution retains the well-known water resistant and airtight effectiveness of these ammo cans. These cans may be easily opened and closed without compromising the shielding effectiveness of the gasket. To make these gaskets you will need the following materials, tools, and hardware: 1. A sheet of 18 to 24 gauge metal Galvanized sheet metal will work, but you may also use standard hot rolled unfinished sheet metal. If you want to splurge, you could use copper metal sheets that will be more expensive, but you’ll have the “Cadillac of gaskets”. Don’t use aluminum or stainless steel sheets for reasons that will be more obvious in the construction of the gasket. The size of the sheet metal needed will depend on the size of gasket you are making. So I suggest that you start by purchasing…




Setting Up A Sick Room in Your Home, by G.A. (RN)

…Setting Up A Home Sick Room Single bed (possibly hospital bed or raised bed) Plastic mattress cover Pillows (6) Plastic pillow covers Fitted sheets, flat sheets, blankets, pillow cases, draw sheets, waterproof pads Side rails Towels/washcloths Plastic basin, emesis basin bedpan, fracture bedpan, urinal Hospital gowns Rolling table Chair Bureau or shelves Bedside commode Walker, cane, crutches Plastic garbage bags–large & small Plastic garbage cans (2) Toilet tissue and paper towels Tissues Baby wipes Body wash, talcum powder, lotion, diaper cream, waterless Cotton swabs Disposable exam gloves Thermometer with holder Clipboard, paper, pens Bleach, hand sanitizer, air freshener, surface cleaner Tape ADDITIONAL SUPPLIES FOR CONTAGIOUS DISEASE Several large, heavy sheets of clear plastic (for vestibule) Heavy washers or drapery weights Duct tape Heavy duty stapler PVC pipe Shelves or table for vestibule Disposable paper gowns, hair covers, shoe covers, masks Large tub for soaking contaminated linens Tarps for wrapping bodies…




Medical Prepping in Three Months: A Guide to Safeguarding Your Family — Part 1 of 2, by Dr. Cynthia J. Koelker

…throughout your preparation period p “Real” Sudafed (pseudoephedrine – requires signature; can only be purchased in small amounts) p OTC Insulin, if needed p OTC Primatene Tablets (or preferably Mist, if available) Rx MEDICATION-DEPENDENT PERSONS Medication-dependent persons should assess their long-term needs and make a list of needed long-term prescription refills to request from their physician.  This is best done in person, per Week 2, below. p Diabetics should also request testing strips, lancets, needles, and other supplies from their physicians. p Hypothyroid patients should consider stocking up on nutraceutical desiccated thyroid, and/or locate an adequate source of mammalian thyroid tissue to make their own. p Asthmatic patients should request nebulizer medications in quantities of 100 vials. p Oxygen-dependent persons should obtain a concentrator and reliable power supply. ED RECORD-KEEPING p Obtain or create forms for medical record keeping   Week 2 ORG OPTIMIZING YOUR HEALTH Schedule needed appointments for




Survey Results: Your Favorite Books on Preparedness, Self-Sufficiency, and Practical Skills

…Kathy Harrison Nuclear War Survival Skills by Cresson H. Kearney (Available for free download.) How to Survive Anything, Anywhere: A Handbook of Survival Skills for Every Scenario and Environment by Chris McNab Storey’s Basic Country Skills: A Practical Guide to Self-Reliance by John & Martha Storey Adventure Medical Kits A Comprehensive Guide to Wilderness & Travel Medicine by Eric A. Weiss, M.D. Rodale’s Ultimate Encyclopedia of Organic Gardening: The Indispensable Green Resource for Every Gardener   Special Operations Forces Medical Handbook (superceded the very out-of-date ST 31-91B) Wilderness Medicine, 5th Edition by Paul S. Auerbach Four-Season Harvest: Organic Vegetables from Your Home Garden All Year Long by Elliot Coleman Back to Basics: A Complete Guide to Traditional Skills, Third Edition by Abigail R. Gehring Government By Emergency by Dr. Gary North The Weed Cookbook: Naturally Nutritious – Yours Free for the Taking! by Adrienne Crowhurst The Modern Survival Retreat by…




Letter Re: Being Prepared to Homeschool

…gifts into consideration. Deciding whether you are interested in faith based or secular materials would then be the next place to start. Consider the many different methods of home education and choose a few to research whether or not they are well suited to your personality and educational philosophy. There are classical, Charlotte Mason, Unit Study, Self Directed and even Unschooling methods to name just a few. If you are interested in faith based materials look for publishers which line up with your religious beliefs such as Abeka.com and Setonhome.org would be a good start for Catholics while Chinuch.org carries materials of interest to Jewish families. Pearsonhomeschool.com is a popular secular publisher as is Homeschool.calvertschool.org. Relatively new to the home school communities are virtual academies and discs from SOS (Switched on Schoolhouse) from Alpha Omega Publishers. This is not by any means a complete list. Christianbook.com and Rainbowresource.com sell materials




My Continued Handgun Search – Part 1, by The Novice

…due consideration, I decided that there was a 51% chance that I would want to return the handgun after testing. I am currently committed to not increase the quantity of guns that I own. But I remain open to increasing the quality of the guns that I own. Because of this, buying a new gun carries with it a commitment to sell a gun that I already own. I liked the Walther P99 for which the PPQ 5″ Standard was a potential replacement. I hoped that the PPQ would merit taking the P99’s place, but felt it was very slightly improbable that this would be the case. With this in mind, I completed the T&E order with Walther. In surprisingly short order, I received the message that a PPQ 5″ Standard was on its way to my FFL. Opening the Box I picked the gun up at my FFL, took…




My Ten-Day Test-My-Preps Adventure – Part 2, by St. Funogas

…rising fast. I was experimenting to see how long it would take to get to the uncomfortable range. I too slowly discovered this was a bad time to be experimenting. You idiot! At 12:30 finally plugged the shop freezer in and set the dial to lowest temp. Note to self: do all testing before the SHTF, not after it starts. I was very exhausted by 19:00. I went to bed and was asleep before my head hit the pillow. By the end of Day Two I had put together a list of the ten most common phrases I had discovered early on that I’d need to get through this experience. Here they are in order of most common usage: 1. YES! 2. You idiot! 3. Prayer of the faithless: “Come on come on come on come on come on…” 4. Duh! 5. Oh yeah baby! 6. Not suitable for a…




How I Test and Evaluate Firearms and Knives, by Pat Cascio

…own pockets. And, I’ve never given any ammo maker a free pass – I report my findings as they are – just the way the ammo worked in the guns I tested ’em in. The same goes for firearms – gun companies rarely give gun writers free guns – as most of you think they do. I’ve never had a gun company offer to give me a free gun, if I would only give their gun a good review – it’s never happened to me, and I don’t think it has happened to any other gun writer, either – you can believe it or not. Back in the day, I used to get a lot of gun companies allowing me to keep the samples they sent me – they just didn’t have a use for a used gun back in their inventory. Today, it’s a rare thing to get a…




Test Your Gear (And Have Fun!), by A.T.

…magazines, IFAKs, filled water reservoir, et cetera). Then walk up and down some stairs. It was not until I tried this that I discovered how heavy those ceramic level IV plates really are. I learned quickly the meaning of “ounces equal pounds, pounds equal pain”. Weather conditions. In certain sections I talked about doing things in varying weather conditions, but this really applies to all testing. I have seen others write about testing yourself and your equipment under stress. Weather should be a big part of that mix, including hot, cold, windy, raining, and whatever else you might face. I am always interested in what does not work under certain conditions, and then I try to come up with something that does. The Bottom Line. I have learned that incorporating testing into your daily life leads to getting more done than you actually realize. So, test away and have fun!…




Backup Power, A Review by KS

Backup power for when the grid goes down or you have to bug out should be an important part of everyone’s prepping plan. For some, that power supply might be more important than others, especially those with medical conditions. Those might be people on dialysis, CPAP machines, or any other health-related electrical pieces of equipment. Then, there’s the obvious short-term food storage issue we think about relating to our refrigerators and freezers. Long-term uses might include recharging batteries, running Ham radio equipment, et cetera. Real Options For Backup Power For many years, the only real option for backup power was to either go off-grid completely or have a backup gas generator. While some people might have a liquid propane backup house generator, a lot of people, especially those on natural gas, may not see that as an efficient option. We all know the downsides to gas generators. Those concerns include…




Build the Plan vs. Test the Plan – Part 1, by T.R.

…we really combined the best of both planning and test? Before this latest trip and this essay, the answer was: “Not really.” After our trip and composing this essay, we feel more confident of our survival skills and eager to further improve. We agreed on a testing scope during a longer than usual personal vacation. We crafted this to mimic certain attributes of off road living we wished to pursue (and in some ways, certain chapters of the novel Patriots written by JWR, but without the dose of civil unrest portion). Previously, Hurricane Irma gave us a real dose of evacuation reality testing within a year of moving to Florida. That hurricane happened early relative to our really getting settled, thus it was a perfect “real” stress test of our conceptual plan. However, we reflected that if we did everything we wanted to prepare in serial order, we would never…




Tapix Mil-Spec Green Sandbags, by Thomas Christianson

…11 x 17 inches due to the curvature of the sides of the bags and the need to leave some material at the top of each bag to allow it to be tied off. For my first test, I prepared 9 sandbags. Test #1 For the first test, I used 9 sandbags to prepare a safety revetment for use while test firing an antique Smith and Wesson .38 S&W double action top-break revolver from my collection. Since the revolver was manufactured in 1882, I wanted a way to safely test fire it before using it just an arm’s length away from my face during regular shooting. I had carefully inspected the revolver and function tested it while unloaded, but the proof of the pudding is in the eating, and the proof of the revolver is in the shooting. To safely test fire the revolver, I constructed a 3 sided sandbag…




The Ghillie Suit–The Ultimate in Camouflage

…poncho. (BTW, I prefer the latter, especially in hot climates.) Both designs are nearly always used in conjunction with a camouflage face veil and a boonie-type hat with similar ghillie garnish. Ghillie suits and capes are commercially made, but these tend to be very expensive (since they are labor-intensive to assemble) and the choice of colors used will not always match your local terrain. Avoid the cheap commercial ghillie suits that are made out of plastic. They are indeed three dimensional but they do not blend in well in the boonies compared to natural materials like burlap and jute. Some commercial sources include: http://www.survival-center.com/shopsite_sc/store/html/ghillies.html http://www.ghillie.com/ http://www.bushrag.com/ https://secure.quixion.net/bushrag/store/catalog/default.php?cPath=23&PHPSESSID=ce1ad5e4d6717ea4095a49f5873c41fe http://www.ustacticalsupply.com/gs_special.shtml http://www.ustacticalsupply.com/gs_otherstuff.shtml http://snipersparadise.com/newproducts/ghillieskins.htm And for our Australian readers, see: http://www.kitbag.com.au/category240_1.htm Do It Yourself (DIY) ghillie suit/cape construction resources on the web include: U.S. Army FM 23-10: http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/library/policy/army/fm/23-10/ch42.htm http://www.snipercountry.com/hottips/GhillieMake.htm http://www.usmilitarysurplus.com/surpluscatalog/product_info.php?products_id=54 There are also fairly detailed ghillie suit making instructions in one for my favorite…




Living Through the Real Estate Crash and Bankruptcy, by Brad C.

My experience with a tax audit, real estate crash, rental house woes, foreclosures, layoff and bankruptcy:   In a nutshell, we went from a 4,000 square foot home, worth more than $1 million, a vacation home, new RV, Mercedes convertible, Jeep, $50,000 SUV, 20 rental properties, a property management company and a great full time job…   To living in a modest rental house in the middle of nowhere. Beginnings I am a computer guy, have been since 1991. I bounced around a few companies gaining positions and knowledge.  Eventually I rode the dot com wave as a security and infrastructure consultant. In 2000-2001 I had been working for a dot-com company, and at one point had enough stock options to retire at 35 years old, just needed to have the stock vest.  But, just before my stock vested, the bubble burst and I went from looking at retiring to looking for