A San Diego man is selling spaces in a hidden bunker for people wanting to escape the coming doomsday 2012 catastrophes. It will cost you $50,000 per per person to save yourself and members of your family by joining Robert Vicino in the bunker, actually a huge complex he is building out of an old Cold War structure somewhere in the southern California desert.
The underground shelter will have supplies enough to accommodate 200 people for up to a year. It will be able to withstand almost any kind of natural or man-made disaster. Besides a blast-proof, 3,000-pound door, the bunker will be fenced off behind razor wire and other barriers.
The idea is that when disaster strikes, the people who've paid for a place in Vicino's hideout will meet at designated rendezvous points and be escorted in, possibly by helicopters. Inside, thanks to the $10 million Vicino is spending on the structure's refit, they will find such necessities as a decontamination room and such comforts as an exercise facility.
The California bunker is envisioned as just the first of several that will be built around the country.
Clearly, some people are taking the 2012 doomsday predictions seriously. And no wonder. Not only do ancient prophecies, from different cultures, all agree that something big is coming at us, but so does science, from seismology to astronomy.
Survival will be the key word from here on out. Your own survival might not depend on finding a bunker to crawl into, but it will require preparation -- and being alert to the signs of the times.
Want to learn more about what's coming for 2012?
Don't believe everything you hear about 2012 and what it will mean to you personally -- but don't dismiss it all, either. The truth is out there and can be known. See the 2012 Predictions site at http://www.2012alarm.com.
Download our free toolbar
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
Micro Farming For Your Survival Garden
Micro farming is not a new concept. In fact, 15% of the world's food comes from micro farms. Essentially, they make the most of the land they own. There are instances where there are self sustaining micro farms in the city on land as small as 1/5th of an acre, and provide food for a family of four! Micro farmers make the most of the land they have by using natural ways to cultivate the land for higher yields and by finding natural ways to feed the soil the needed nutrients for the plants. The use of composting, crop rotation and companion planting are a large part of the success for these tiny farms.
Currently, with the exorbitant increase of food prices, many people are literally taking this problem into their own hands. People are planting survival gardens in their back yards to supplement their tighter budgets as well as become more self sustaining in the process.
Survival Garden Basics:
- Plan out crops that will be planted and find companion plants to plant along side of them. Companion planting is an organic farming technique. Essentially, certain plants, when planted in close proximity to another will give off nutrients of what each plant needs for fertilizer.
-Only plant heirloom or Non-GMO (non genetically modified) plant varieties. The reasoning for this is because after the plants have produced, the seeds can be collected for the next season's use.
-Research the nutritional content of the seeds to get the most nutrition from what you grow.
-Find seeds for the whole season. Planting a garden is not only for Spring and Summer. Finding plant varieties for the colder months will help keep food on the table and take less money out of the bank accounts.
-After collecting the seeds from the plant, store the seeds in a waterproof container or bag and store in a dark, cool place.
-When the plant is finished producing, collect the seeds and toss the non-yielding adult plants in the compost heap.
-Make the most of the already existing space. Use floating or raised beds for added gardening space. Use fencing as a support for vine growing plants.
-Find information out about rotating crops to further feed the soil. Some plants have a tendency to need higher amounts of nitrogen, thus stripping the soil of the nutrient in the process. When the next season comes around, find plants that do not need as much nitrogen and plant in that area.
Practice Makes Perfect:
Farming is one of the ways that made the United States so great. Generations have passed since the United States citizens were primarily farmers, and now it seems the time is upon us to re-educate ourselves on this topic. It is important to add that gardening mistakes are made, and some gardens do fail, but the more someone sticks with it, the better off they and the garden will be. And though it may be true that some of us will inevitably be the hand of death to the plants, it is better to make mistakes now, than when a survival garden is really needed. In all honesty, the gardening process is rather easy once a little research has been done and action has been taken.
Tess Pennington is the lead content contributor for http://www.readynutrition.com. Ready Nutrition is an educational resource for those wanting to learn more about home safety preparedness, learning how to cope in disaster situations, and for those wanting to learn how to be more self sustaining. Her career at the American Red Cross left her with years of experience in safety and disaster preparedness. Tess is establishing herself as one of the foremost authorities on safety development and disaster preparedness on the internet. She describes herself as a mixture of Martha Stewart and Les Stroud.
Tess Pennington's work today encompasses:
• Teaching disaster preparedness
• Informing readers about the importance of preparing for any given situation.
• Writing
• Speaking
• Media consultation
Tess lives in Texas with her husband and three rambunctious children.
Download our free toolbar
Currently, with the exorbitant increase of food prices, many people are literally taking this problem into their own hands. People are planting survival gardens in their back yards to supplement their tighter budgets as well as become more self sustaining in the process.
Survival Garden Basics:
- Plan out crops that will be planted and find companion plants to plant along side of them. Companion planting is an organic farming technique. Essentially, certain plants, when planted in close proximity to another will give off nutrients of what each plant needs for fertilizer.
-Only plant heirloom or Non-GMO (non genetically modified) plant varieties. The reasoning for this is because after the plants have produced, the seeds can be collected for the next season's use.
-Research the nutritional content of the seeds to get the most nutrition from what you grow.
-Find seeds for the whole season. Planting a garden is not only for Spring and Summer. Finding plant varieties for the colder months will help keep food on the table and take less money out of the bank accounts.
-After collecting the seeds from the plant, store the seeds in a waterproof container or bag and store in a dark, cool place.
-When the plant is finished producing, collect the seeds and toss the non-yielding adult plants in the compost heap.
-Make the most of the already existing space. Use floating or raised beds for added gardening space. Use fencing as a support for vine growing plants.
-Find information out about rotating crops to further feed the soil. Some plants have a tendency to need higher amounts of nitrogen, thus stripping the soil of the nutrient in the process. When the next season comes around, find plants that do not need as much nitrogen and plant in that area.
Practice Makes Perfect:
Farming is one of the ways that made the United States so great. Generations have passed since the United States citizens were primarily farmers, and now it seems the time is upon us to re-educate ourselves on this topic. It is important to add that gardening mistakes are made, and some gardens do fail, but the more someone sticks with it, the better off they and the garden will be. And though it may be true that some of us will inevitably be the hand of death to the plants, it is better to make mistakes now, than when a survival garden is really needed. In all honesty, the gardening process is rather easy once a little research has been done and action has been taken.
Tess Pennington is the lead content contributor for http://www.readynutrition.com. Ready Nutrition is an educational resource for those wanting to learn more about home safety preparedness, learning how to cope in disaster situations, and for those wanting to learn how to be more self sustaining. Her career at the American Red Cross left her with years of experience in safety and disaster preparedness. Tess is establishing herself as one of the foremost authorities on safety development and disaster preparedness on the internet. She describes herself as a mixture of Martha Stewart and Les Stroud.
Tess Pennington's work today encompasses:
• Teaching disaster preparedness
• Informing readers about the importance of preparing for any given situation.
• Writing
• Speaking
• Media consultation
Tess lives in Texas with her husband and three rambunctious children.
Download our free toolbar
Survival Books - A Treasure Trove of Unlimited Knowledge
For a survival researcher, it is baffling to see the large number of texts on display in library shelves, book stores, e-catalogs, and blogs, and choosing the right one usually becomes a nightmare. There are books on outdoor survival, emergency preparedness, disaster survival, and terrorist attack survival, as well as those covering the possibilities of nuclear, chemical and biological warfare. The average reader, therefore, is quite justified in questioning "Where do I start?" The answer, fortunately, is simpler than it looks. Since most survival books, and particularly those written in the last decade or two, target the average reader, the beginner can gain the knowledge he needs from a wide variety of books. The best approach usually is to select, as a starting point, one or two general books that cover almost all aspects of survival. Once you are familiar with the fundamentals, you can refine your field of study according to what you feel is your most urgently needed knowledge, or according to interests. I will present here a general selection of survival books, which should be a good place for you to start, and should help you identify the areas which you want top explore further.
The best book to start with is, I feel, "Ultimate Survival Skills - Secrets to Staying Alive, Anytime, Anywhere." The reason that it makes a good starting point is its approachability: it is written in easy-to-understand, everyday language, and the style is engaging so that it is a fun and informative read. The information given is new for beginners, so you learn a lot while avoiding information overload, and consequently, you can retain almost everything the author describes.
If you find it too brief for your liking, however, then Cody Lundin's "When All Hell Breaks Loose - Stuff you need to survive when disaster strikes" is an excellent alternate. It is more pertinent to our daily lives, as it focuses mostly on urban emergency situations and disasters. Therefore, even for those who do not intend to be part of an outdoor activity any time soon, this book contains useful information that might just help save their lives. Further, this book is extremely easy to read, as well as being enormously entertaining, and once again, easy to retain.
What do you do, however, once you are past the basics? Again, you certainly face an overwhelmingly large number of alternatives. John Wiseman's "SAS Survival Handbook: How to Survive in the Wild, in any Climate, On Land, or at Sea" is, I feel, a very strong candidate here. The key feature of the work is that it provides very detailed survival knowledge at the same time as being very approachable. If you are upset with the fact that books for advanced learners almost always use boring, tiring jargon and complex writing styles, then this book is a great option for you. The full color illustrations of poisonous and edible plants, animals and herbs are extremely helpful in an actual outdoor survival situation. This is also a good place to learn fire craft, hunting, shelter building and navigation skills.
Of course, if you simply want a carry along guide for a potentially life threatening situation, the US Army Survival Manual ought to serve you well. It deals with all types of survival skills in exhaustive detail, and you can find in it all the information that you could possibly need in the event of any disaster or emergency.
If you are a complete novice in the field of survival, you can read any one of these books for a start and then decide what particular aspect of survival you wish to research further. For more advanced learners, however, it is best to learn more about aspects that you do not already know about, just to ensure that you can hold your own in absolutely any kind of survival situation.
For even more survival books, tips, and advice, check out the #1 site on the net for survivalists at:
http://www.survivalskillsoutdoors.com
Download our free toolbar
The best book to start with is, I feel, "Ultimate Survival Skills - Secrets to Staying Alive, Anytime, Anywhere." The reason that it makes a good starting point is its approachability: it is written in easy-to-understand, everyday language, and the style is engaging so that it is a fun and informative read. The information given is new for beginners, so you learn a lot while avoiding information overload, and consequently, you can retain almost everything the author describes.
If you find it too brief for your liking, however, then Cody Lundin's "When All Hell Breaks Loose - Stuff you need to survive when disaster strikes" is an excellent alternate. It is more pertinent to our daily lives, as it focuses mostly on urban emergency situations and disasters. Therefore, even for those who do not intend to be part of an outdoor activity any time soon, this book contains useful information that might just help save their lives. Further, this book is extremely easy to read, as well as being enormously entertaining, and once again, easy to retain.
What do you do, however, once you are past the basics? Again, you certainly face an overwhelmingly large number of alternatives. John Wiseman's "SAS Survival Handbook: How to Survive in the Wild, in any Climate, On Land, or at Sea" is, I feel, a very strong candidate here. The key feature of the work is that it provides very detailed survival knowledge at the same time as being very approachable. If you are upset with the fact that books for advanced learners almost always use boring, tiring jargon and complex writing styles, then this book is a great option for you. The full color illustrations of poisonous and edible plants, animals and herbs are extremely helpful in an actual outdoor survival situation. This is also a good place to learn fire craft, hunting, shelter building and navigation skills.
Of course, if you simply want a carry along guide for a potentially life threatening situation, the US Army Survival Manual ought to serve you well. It deals with all types of survival skills in exhaustive detail, and you can find in it all the information that you could possibly need in the event of any disaster or emergency.
If you are a complete novice in the field of survival, you can read any one of these books for a start and then decide what particular aspect of survival you wish to research further. For more advanced learners, however, it is best to learn more about aspects that you do not already know about, just to ensure that you can hold your own in absolutely any kind of survival situation.
For even more survival books, tips, and advice, check out the #1 site on the net for survivalists at:
http://www.survivalskillsoutdoors.com
Download our free toolbar
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
Get Creative With A Cheap Food!!
One of the best ways that I have found to be frugal at dinner time is to use Ramen Noodles!! I fix them many different ways and they are so cheap. At our local grocery store you can either get a six pack for 79 cents or sometimes they have them 10 for a $1.00!! The savings is great.
Here are some of my favorite ramen noodle cookbooks. You will be amazed when you see all that you can do with Ramen Noodles.
Here are some of my favorite ramen noodle cookbooks. You will be amazed when you see all that you can do with Ramen Noodles.
Monday, July 19, 2010
Tips on Saving Money On Food
Use a combination of methods to save on food prices.
Food prices are going up. Blame it on the weather, gas prices, politics, or whatever, prices will always go up - sometimes faster, sometimes slower, prices will always go up. Instead of constantly trying to adjust your budget upwards, take another road... adjust your food skills to make your food budget work.
The only way to truly save on food is to use several different tactics at once. Don't get hung up on coupons or cooking from scratch or sales prices to the exclusion of other methods. The more ways you cut your food bill, the more money you can save.
Usually the first thing to consider is shopping for food. Saving at the time you shop is a priority. You must be aware of sales psychology to win the battle and you must be aware of the little and not so little tricks that food distributors use to get more of your money.
Watch out when they change package design, because they may be changing size and price, too.
If you find a good sale, stock up as much as you can without overdoing it. Don't buy at 10% off then find out it's 25% off the next week. It's hard to see how this works if you don't create a grocery price book . It's essential to your shopping decisions to keep a record of prices and sizes that will help you know if you're getting bargain prices or not.
Only use coupons on food you would buy anyway. You're not saving anything if you buy something you don't normally eat. If you use a coupon on a brand name, be sure it still doesn't cost more than the store brand. Call a spade a spade. If you want to use a coupon on something you seldom or never buy, call it a splurge or an experiment. It's not a savings.
Other places than grocery stores sell food. Look around. Convenience stores sometimes have lower prices on milk or bread cheaper than chain stores, so keep alert. Take advantage of every opportunity you find for getting food cheaply or free. There may be more opportunities than you realize - including the ones you create for yourself!
Grow your own food whenever and however it's possible. You might be pleasantly surprised at how much you really can grow, even if you live in a high rise apartment. A windowsill will grow herbs, garlic and chives... why buy them? If you have just a little room, container gardening can get you lots of cheap food.
Don't forget about the wild (free) food that's abundant almost anywhere - even in a city park. (But be careful of chemicals and animal droppings.)
Getting all that food won't do you much good if you don't store it properly. Even if you can't do a lot, do what you can. Find a way to not waste it.
After a good meal from your cheap or free food, use leftovers - all of them - creatively for even more savings. What you don't throw out is what you don't have to buy. You may even be throwing out some things without realizing they're edible. Don't throw away stems, leaves, parings, or even bones unless you're absolutely sure they're of no value.
Finally, make your own bread. There's nothing magic about it, although the taste sure seems like it! You can save a lot on the price of bread by baking your own. Here's a "never fail" recipe/method for doing it for beginners and old hands alike: Bread Making for Beginners and Others
Then save even more by skipping the commercial yeast. It doesn't have to be an old family secret and it's fine if it's NOT from somewhere else. Using sourdough starter is a little different, but not much. A time or two and you'll be comfortable with the method.
More ways to save:
Use cheapest cuts of meat and tenderize by marinating and/or cooking methods like boiling or slow roasting.
Use cheese, etc., for protein instead of meat.
Buy meat by the serving, not by the pound.
Have a vegetarian meal now and then even if you're not a vegetarian. Meat is usually the most expensive part of a meal. Eggs and peanut butter are cheaper protein than meat.
Never go shopping when you're hungry
Make a list, take a list, buy from a list
Check the sales circulars before you shop
Avoid junk food of any kind
Avoid "convenience food" - don't pay for something you can do yourself
Eat seasonally. No watermelon in January, no apples in July.
Eat regionally. Lobsters don't grow in the Rockies and beef doesn't grow in New York City. Limit the food on which you have to pay shipping.
Using every method, trick and tip you can find, you CAN keep your food budget under control.
Food prices are going up. Blame it on the weather, gas prices, politics, or whatever, prices will always go up - sometimes faster, sometimes slower, prices will always go up. Instead of constantly trying to adjust your budget upwards, take another road... adjust your food skills to make your food budget work.
The only way to truly save on food is to use several different tactics at once. Don't get hung up on coupons or cooking from scratch or sales prices to the exclusion of other methods. The more ways you cut your food bill, the more money you can save.
Usually the first thing to consider is shopping for food. Saving at the time you shop is a priority. You must be aware of sales psychology to win the battle and you must be aware of the little and not so little tricks that food distributors use to get more of your money.
Watch out when they change package design, because they may be changing size and price, too.
If you find a good sale, stock up as much as you can without overdoing it. Don't buy at 10% off then find out it's 25% off the next week. It's hard to see how this works if you don't create a grocery price book . It's essential to your shopping decisions to keep a record of prices and sizes that will help you know if you're getting bargain prices or not.
Only use coupons on food you would buy anyway. You're not saving anything if you buy something you don't normally eat. If you use a coupon on a brand name, be sure it still doesn't cost more than the store brand. Call a spade a spade. If you want to use a coupon on something you seldom or never buy, call it a splurge or an experiment. It's not a savings.
Other places than grocery stores sell food. Look around. Convenience stores sometimes have lower prices on milk or bread cheaper than chain stores, so keep alert. Take advantage of every opportunity you find for getting food cheaply or free. There may be more opportunities than you realize - including the ones you create for yourself!
Grow your own food whenever and however it's possible. You might be pleasantly surprised at how much you really can grow, even if you live in a high rise apartment. A windowsill will grow herbs, garlic and chives... why buy them? If you have just a little room, container gardening can get you lots of cheap food.
Don't forget about the wild (free) food that's abundant almost anywhere - even in a city park. (But be careful of chemicals and animal droppings.)
Getting all that food won't do you much good if you don't store it properly. Even if you can't do a lot, do what you can. Find a way to not waste it.
After a good meal from your cheap or free food, use leftovers - all of them - creatively for even more savings. What you don't throw out is what you don't have to buy. You may even be throwing out some things without realizing they're edible. Don't throw away stems, leaves, parings, or even bones unless you're absolutely sure they're of no value.
Finally, make your own bread. There's nothing magic about it, although the taste sure seems like it! You can save a lot on the price of bread by baking your own. Here's a "never fail" recipe/method for doing it for beginners and old hands alike: Bread Making for Beginners and Others
Then save even more by skipping the commercial yeast. It doesn't have to be an old family secret and it's fine if it's NOT from somewhere else. Using sourdough starter is a little different, but not much. A time or two and you'll be comfortable with the method.
More ways to save:
Use cheapest cuts of meat and tenderize by marinating and/or cooking methods like boiling or slow roasting.
Use cheese, etc., for protein instead of meat.
Buy meat by the serving, not by the pound.
Have a vegetarian meal now and then even if you're not a vegetarian. Meat is usually the most expensive part of a meal. Eggs and peanut butter are cheaper protein than meat.
Never go shopping when you're hungry
Make a list, take a list, buy from a list
Check the sales circulars before you shop
Avoid junk food of any kind
Avoid "convenience food" - don't pay for something you can do yourself
Eat seasonally. No watermelon in January, no apples in July.
Eat regionally. Lobsters don't grow in the Rockies and beef doesn't grow in New York City. Limit the food on which you have to pay shipping.
Using every method, trick and tip you can find, you CAN keep your food budget under control.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
