Keep The Kids Happy When Off-Grid

My Little Man got a Nintendo 3DS for Christmas and I was thinking about what would happen if power went out and he wants to play. The power cord that came with the 3DS was made just for it and was just for wall plug. So I first got an adapter for it that makes it to be able to use USB for power. This made it where I could then get a Solar Power USB Charger , plus we already have our RAVPower 15W Solar Charger with Dual USB Port (Foldable, Portable, iSmart Technology) that I can use for my Kindle and our phones , etc.

The other item in the photo is a Solar 11-in-1 Battery Charger that I just bought a lot of AA and AAA rechargeable batteries for to use with other handheld devises and radios. Always prepared. I keep all of these in a small faraday cage that I made with each item in Antistatic Bags. I made a cheap faraday cage that I just made out of a 18 gallon rubbermade tote ($5.00) and 3 rolls of aluminum foil. ($3.00) Each item kept in the antistatic bags. I tested it out with my cell phone. I hope that is all that I had to do. I placed it in there on and tried to call and text myself and it did not go through. I keep my kindle and some other small radios, handheld scanner, walkie-talkies, and more in it.

Prepare For Emergencies & Doomsday Scenarios

Many people across the country prepare for emergencies or doomsday scenarios by storing food and water. Freeze-dried and dehydrated foods are a popular way to store food without taking up too much space. You can also learn how to provide your own water supply from companies such as findwaterfirst.com. It is always a good idea to prepare for natural or man-made disasters by advanced planning.

Dehydrating Food Tips

There are basically two convenient ways to store foods that will last for a long time. Freeze-dried and dehydrated foods are a great way to store foods for long periods. Preserving food techniques have been around for centuries. Freeze-dried foods are flash-frozen with oxygen and water removed while in their gas state. The process ensures a longer shelf life without sacrificing nutrition or quality.

Dehydrated foods require the moisture is removed at high temperatures. However, this process reduces the nutritional value of food because of high temperatures. Foods that are freeze-dried can last up to 25 years while dehydrated foods last up to 10 years. The process for free-dried foods only takes about 10 minutes while dehydrated foods take 25 minutes to complete.

Water Storage Tips

The first step in storing water is knowing how much you need. The average person requires one gallon of water each day. Calculate how many days of water you will need to prepare. Choose the right container that prohibits light. The containers should also be free from BPA to reduce potential contaminants. Clean the containers with one teaspoon of bleach per quart of water. Wait at least 60 seconds before pouring water into the container. Don’t forget that pets also need a half of gallon of water each day.

Gardening Tips

The purpose of a garden is to make yourself self-sufficient in the future. The first step is to understand what types of foods grow well in your region. You can find this information by visiting your state agricultural department online. You will need to prepare the soil to ensure your plants are healthy. Grow foods that are easy to store such as tomatoes, bell peppers and onions.

The location of your garden is an important factor in how well your plants grow. If you do not have enough sunlight, then consider container gardening instead. Plan to grow enough food each season to store food for everyone in your family. Preparation is the key to survival when an emergency arrives.

Firelogs

I found a few of these in our grocery stores clearance aisle the other day. I think they could come in handy. They will fit in our wood stove. They were only 1.50 each so something to put back. Who knows if we will ever need them.

The Biology Of Doom

Found another book at a thrift store to add to my shelf, The Biology of Doom: The History of America's Secret Germ Warfare Project. Pretty interesting. So far I have read that they could put diseases into mice and other animals and then release them into someplace to spread the disease into humans. HMMMMMM. Kind of scary. The type of books that I have been reading lately , you would think that I would have more nightmares.

FROM BOOK DESCRIPTION :

The first book to expose the true story of America's secret program to create biological weapons of mass destruction.

From anthrax to botulism, from smallpox to Ebola, the threat of biological destruction is rapidly overtaking our collective fear of atomic weaponry. In an era when a lone fanatic could wipe out an entire population with the contents of a small vial, the specter of germ warfare has moved into a prominent position in the public's mind. This riveting narrative traces America's own covert biological weapons program from its origins in World War II to its abrupt cancellation in 1969. This project, at its peak, employed 5,000 people, tested pathogens on 2,000 live human volunteers, and conducted open-air tests on American soil. The U.S. government appropriated research from Japanese experiments on Chinese civilians, thus benefiting from one of the twentieth century's greatest atrocities; sprayed its own cities with bacterial aerosols; and stockpiled millions of bacterial bombs for instant deployment. Yet, surprisingly, almost nothing has been published about this project until now. In light of America's increasing surveillance and condemnation of foreign biological weapons programs, this exposé of America's own dangerous Cold War secret is both fascinating and shocking.

The Biology of Doom: The History of America's Secret Germ Warfare Project

Cut The Cable Cord

Back in 2009 my husband was laid-off for about 6 months and the first thing that we did was cut our cable off. It was just not a needed thing and the bill was too much to have to worry about when his pay was a LOT less then it had been. We would rather have food to eat than be able to watch cable. The first thing we did was get the ole VCR and DVD player out and then we found a cheap antenna for our TV so that we could watch local channels. It wasn't too long after that that they switched everything to digital so I got one of those certificates that the government was sending out to be able to get a converter box. We ended up finding a much better Ultra Thin Indoor HDTV Antenna, 50 Mile Range that made us go from having about 5 local channels to now having 12. Better than nothing.

The following year I started investigating ways to be able to watch movies and such at home through the internet and found out about a Roku Streaming Media Player so that we could use Netflix. In that May of 2010 they had a Mother's day special going on and I got one for maybe 70.00 dollars and had free shipping . Plus it timed to be a birthday gift for me also. We loved it right away. Could watch Netflix with it and it was only $7.99 a month bill. Plus Roku Streaming Media Player had a lot of other free channels on it to be able to watch other things. I have since upgraded my "ancient" 1st gen ROKU to a Roku 2 Streaming Media Player . To make it better for our older TV that I had gotten at a thrift store, I bought a Mini Composite RCA CVBS AV To HDMI Converter which made some of the channels work better and be able to play on our old TV. I love my ROKU. It was the best purchase we ever made. Has saved us so much money. I would never go back to cable.



Still, we have no bills each month for cable. NETFLIX and our internet is the only bill. But we would have the internet anyway because of work and schooling.

Now it is 2015 and we have really gotten good at being able to watch anything we want to watch online and thru the ROKU, but I wanted something different and something that would take what I do on our tablets and computer to our TV. So I did some more research and found out about an Android TV media streaming box. I found this one, MXQ Android 4.4 Quad-Core WiFi Kodi 1080P Smart set TV Box 8GB XBMC Fully Loaded on ebay for low price , It was on sale on Black Friday. It is basically like an android tablet, but you have it on your TV!  I have had it for a week and other than the cost of the box, I have not had to spend any other money. We love it.

On Christmas eve we received a free 2 months of Slingtv. So, until February we have those channels. But, we will cancel it. We still just have Netflix. Have had it so long that they grandfathered us in on the old price of $7.99, but , I think it will go up sometime this year. But, even 8.99 a month is a lot less then a huge cable bill. When our cable was cut off we had basic and in 2 rooms. It was 89.00 a month!!! Can't even imagine what it would be now. They say at our house now we can';t even get cable hooked up tho, too far from the new lines that TWC put in. Just easier to keep the cable cord cut!!!

There are so many ways to be able to cut the cord and save a ton of money. Frees up a lot of money for you to then be able to prep more.

Now , you can even get a Rabbit TV that is full of ways to watch TV and movies. Pretty easy to use. I used to use it on my laptop until my laptop quit. But this is low-cost and a very frugal way to help you cut the cord




Having to update this post - I completely forgot about my son's AppleTV that he LOVES! He is 22 and has never complained about not having cable. The AppleTV works with his phone and all of his other Apple products and has Netflix etc on it. We got that for free when we signed up for faster internet and they gave us a $100.00 Apple gift certificate. Pretty cool. 








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