The Water Collection Handbook: A Guide To Collecting, Treating, and Storing Water

The Water Collection Handbook: A Guide To Collecting, Treating, and Storing Water (2nd Edition) (water treatment, water harvesting, rain water, survivalist, ... drinking water, homesteading, off the grid) was a free book for the kindle when this post was written.

Do you know how to handle a water shortage? Is it expensive to own a water storage system? Can I make one myself?

Water is an essential part of human life. Without it, a person will die within three days. Most people are dependent on public utilities and grocery stores for their source of potable water, but what happens if both of these run-out?

"The Water Collection Handbook - A Guide To Collecting, Treating, and Storing Water" contains potentially lifesaving information that everyone may need someday.

Are you prepared to meet the water needs of you and your family in the event of an emergency?

To ensure survival for yourself and your family, it is recommended that you learn the basics of how to collect, treat, and store water for long periods of time.

"The Water Collection Handbook - A Guide To Collecting, Treating, and Storing Water is a comprehensive overview of water collection methods geared towards the survivalist - but equally useful to anyone. This book will show you the importance of proper water storage and introduce you to several easy to follow methods, how to properly purify your collected water, and everything else you should know about when dealing with a water crisis..

I CAN CAN GROUND MEATS!!

I CAN CAN GROUND MEATS!!: How to safely grind and home can ground meats to stock your food storage pantry with flavorful and nutritious loose ground meats (Frugal Living Series Book 4) was a free book for the kindle when this post was written.

I Can Can Ground Meats!! is just what you need to learn to safely home can ground meats and stock your pantry with shelf stable ground meat, meatballs, meat loaves, and even gyro meat! Just imagine how easy it will be to prepare a hardy nutritious meal for your family when you don't have to thaw anything or make a special trip to the store to get dinner to the table.

You will not only learn to safely home can meats, but how to grind your own meats! Take complete control of your family's foods through the methods taught in I Can Can Ground Meats!! You determine how much salt, how much seasoning, and how much fat goes into your family's ground meats.

As always, Dr. Jennifer Shambrook seasons her family recipes with humorous and heartfelt family stories that makes the book an enjoyable read even without the cooking techniques and recipes.

Save money, increase your family's food quality, and know the satisfaction of self sufficiency through the well described, step-by-step methods in I Can Can Ground Meats!!

Survival Skills

Survival Skills BOX SET 6 IN 1: How To Prepare Your Survival Kit, How To Start Fire, Hunting And Fishing To Feed Yourself, Building Shelter And Cooking ... hunting, fishing, prepping and foraging) was a free kindle book when this post was written.

Survival Skills BOX SET 6 IN 1: How To Prepare Your Survival Kit, How To Start Fire, Hunting And Fishing To Feed Yourself, Building Shelter And Cooking On Campfire (FREE Bonus Included)

Book #1: Survival Kit: 20 Useful Tools Every Prepper Needs

This book throws together everything you need to know about survival in uncertain times and packs it all together into one concise survival kit! You never have to be unprepared ever again. This book answers every question you need answered when it comes to prepping for the uncertain!

Book #2: Survival Skills: The Only 10 Items You Will Need To Survive And 3 Situations Where And How To Use Them

Would you like to know the top ten items many survivalist experts agree are the items you might need in a survivalist or collapse situation?

Then you should scroll up and purchase a copy of this book, filled with the top ten items you may need, as well as a few more, and the three different scenarios for each item where you may need them. It’s one thing to know what you need, but it’s another to know how it can help you. In most situations where others will feel helpless, you will feel knowledgeable and ready by the time you finish reading this book.

Book #3: Survival Skills: Take Yourself Out Alive: Fishing & Hunting In The Wilderness

This book Survival Skills is basically designed to give a complete idea about fishing and hunting in the wilderness. Here you will find amazing tricks and tips that can prove vital for hunting and fishing. Moreover some hunting as well as fishing techniques are also discussed in the book so that you may acquire those skills to make your wild journey easier. Learn different survival fishing and hunting skills because they will not help you only in the wild but also you would be in a better position to face some disastrous situation. Here in this book all the tips and techniques regarding fishing and hunting are describe by experts that you will love to try

Book #4: Survival Guide - Into The Wilderness. How To Find Food, Water And Shelter In The Wildest Forest.

This book utilizes a knowledgebase of first hand experience from those that have blazed a trail through the wilderness before us. So just for a minute, put away your lap top, and don’t even bother to charge your cell phone, because this book describes how you can bypass modern technological society all together and survive with the most basic of resources and skills required by the untamed wilderness. Taking a realistic look at how you can utilize the most from your surroundings, this book works as a guide to help you fashion the literal tools of your survival from the trees over your head and the rocks under your feet.

Book #5: SHTF Preparedness Guide.25 Proven Methods For Starting Fires Without Matches

The 25 methods can be dangerous and most should only be used in an absolute survival situation, however preparing yourself with knowledge is one of the best preparations that you can make.

Book #6: Campfire Recipes: 25 Dutch Oven Cast Iron Nutritious Recipes For Real Men.

With a Dutch oven you can go well beyond toasted marshmallows or s’mores. If you’re looking for hearty and healthy recipes that can please a real man on the go and in the woods, then you’ve come to the right place. Whether is something tangy or sweet, we’ve got what you need to hit the spot with this simple easy recipes you won’t want to leave home without.

Food Storage Recipe - Tater Tot Casserole

Tater Tots were on sale this week for 99 cents a bag. YAY. Two bags in the freezer and my son's favorite meal.

NEED:

1/2 pound of ground beef. I used to make it with a whole pound , but everyone in the house complained and I toned it down a bit. Which was cool, saves money.

salt and pepper to taste

1 can of condensed cream of mushroom soup

shredded cheese - we like colby-jack!

1 package of frozen tater tots - 16 ounce bag

Fry up the ground beef and drain it very well.

Stir in the cream of mushroom soup and season with salt and pepper.

Put this mixture into a casserole dish.

Layer the tater tots on top of this in an even layer.

Top with shredded cheese.

Bake in a 350 degree oven until the tots are golden brown and hot.

Stockpile For When Times Are Lean

I am so glad that we have food storage and other items , like toilet paper, etc. It is coming in handy now . Truck driving for the company my husband drives for is slow in the winter. It started getting slow about the middle of December and they say it will be like that until about March. So our stockpile has really come in handy. I still go to the grocery store when there is something on sale that we would like to have. Like , this week they had big bags of french fries on sale for 99 cents! There is no way that I could pass that up. Tater tots and french fries are a great addition to a grilled Turkey burger. We are still saving money to buy some land this spring, not as much as would like to , but any little bit is an addition to the savings jar! It is being added to , not subtracted from. We will make it thru this and be much stronger and learn more about stockpiling and being prepared because of it.

Be safe and PREPARED!

Make your own biodiesel : A Simple BioDiesel Handbook

Make your own biodiesel : A Simple BioDiesel Handbook ( Learn to Make BioDiesel Step by Step The Easy Way): Make your own BioDiesel: The definitive step ... Bio Diesel Step by Step The Easy Way) 1) was a free kindle book when this post was written.

With this incredible e-Book you can make your own sustainable energy/ alternative fuel company in your backyard. It a simple and easy fashion the complexities and Science of Making bio Diesel are simplified.
Learn just how easy it is to take advantage of the cutting edge Biodiesel technology( Where you can easily setup your own French fry grease processing system in your Garage. But this idea is only the beginning ….. A quick run down of what to expect inside our Kindle eBook are as follows:

A Proven, Step-By-Step Method To

Biodiesel Basics: A Simple Bio Diesel Handbook

Check Out What Others Are Saying...

"With rising fuel prices, who wouldn’t want to have more options when it comes to fueling our vehicles? This book takes a quick look into what bio-diesel is, how to construct your own refinery, and how to find sources of bio-diesel. This is a great fuel option for those that are environmentally conscientious or just want to stop getting robbed at the pump. This has some great lessons in it for the budding science student on just how this technology works. The book also details some of the few drawbacks, like the lingering smell of fried food and the initial startup costs. Overall, it is easy to follow and understand with great step-by-step instructions." Liz Evans
"This book gives an overview of biodiesel. It examines and compares the ways in which we can use vegetable oil and ethanol. It’s quite technical and the book does go into some chemistry but it wasn’t at all hard to follow. It’s well-researched and gives quite a wide overview as it also discusses the problem in Hong Kong, and it helps to open your eyes, and there are links included for further research." Robert Sparks

Here Is A Preview Of What You'll Learn...

• Learn Exactly What Biodiesel is?
• How it’s made?
• Where to get supplies for processing your Own Bio diesel?
• Biodiesel Facts and Tips that you MUST know!
• How to design a Biodiesel processor?
• All about basic Biodiesel processor design?
• Why use biodiesel when diesel is available freely( Call your Local Restaurants, and Beg for their Old Grease?
• Biodiesel resources on the Web!
• Ethanol resources on the Web!

Home Brewing Beer And Other Juicing Recipes: How to Brew Beer Explained in Simple Steps

Home Brewing Beer And Other Juicing Recipes: How to Brew Beer Explained in Simple Steps was a free kindle book when this post was written.

The Boxed Set "Home Brewing Beer and Other Juicing Recipes," is
the perfect collection of books for the reader who is interested in learning
more about beer-brewing, or adding a few more recipes to his/her brewing
repertoire. As a special bonus, this boxed set also includes a book about smoothies
that will introduce the reader to a wide array of fruity beverages. This book
will be an asset to the reader on the occasions where he/she has to cater to
the refreshment needs of children or other persons for whom beer would not be
suitable (for example, persons on medication or special diets).


The "Home Brewing Beer and Other Juicing Recipes" Boxed Set
contains three (3) titles:


Book 1: Beer Brewing Recipes: Beer Brewing for Beginners.


Book 2: Home Brewing: 70 Top Secrets & Tricks to Brewing
Beer Right the First Time.


Book 3: Smoothie Food Poetry for the Smoothie Lifestyle.

Food Storage Recipe - Easy Chicken Alfredo

When you 're snowed in you can come up with stuff to eat on a whim and if you have a well stocked pantry you will have a lot of variety!

Just grab a box of alfredo flavored mac&cheese. Add a can of chicken and cream of chicken soup.

Cook the noodles, add it all together. The soup is used in place of the milk. Add broccoli if you have it. I use frozen chopped.

Quick lunch.

Grid Down: A Strike against America - An EMP Survival Story

Grid Down: A Strike against America - An EMP Survival Story- Book Two was a free kindle book at the time of this posting. Great read for when cooped up during a winter storm.

** Free Link to Best Selling Prequel Grid Down: The Beginning- Included for Free in every copy!***

An EMP leaves a small northeastern town in ruins, with no assistance from the government, military, or law enforcement. As a result, a ruthless band of criminals take over the town and terrorize its residents. But one town isn’t enough as they set their sights on a hidden community of preppers who fled into the mountains.  

Rob Parker is having one hell of a day. His camp was attacked and his children were kidnapped. Mila, his wife, is in hysterics and his small survivalist community is quickly falling apart. But despite insurmountable odds, he must pull his fractured group together to get their children back. Their plan will bring them into direct confrontation with Rob’s nemesis, the psychotic mayor who runs the town. The brutal journey begins here where nothing will be easy and carnage is sure to follow. Can Rob and his family survive their harsh new reality? Or was the destruction of the power grids only the beginning of their demise?  Find out in the third installment of “Grid Down!”

In this new thrilling disaster series, author Roger Hayden continues the saga of his best-selling EMP series, “The Pulse,” taking readers on an intense, terrifying journey through a digital-dependent world striped of both its modern conveniences and humanity.

Prepare For Winter Storm

We had pretty nice weather the last couple of months and now the winter is coming on big time. We are under a winter storm watch and it is time to be prepared for it. I don't agree with people I see in the stores buying up all of the bread and milk. I really do not understand why they would just get that. You need to get canned food and other types of food that would be easy to prepare if your power goes out. Items like, canned chili and beef stew. Serve them with rice or noodles. They can easily be cooked on a camping stove if you had to. Plus , they will fill you up.

Have all of your blankets handy. If you have to keep warm you can close off one room and keep warm. Have a couple of different ways to be able to keep your family warm. You could use a kerosene heater or a Mr. Heater Portable Propane Heater .

Prepare for the winter storm before it gets to you. If you are prepared for it ahead of time than your family will be comfortable during it and have no worries. Be well-fed and not frozen.

Tips For Winter Camping

You have got to take extra precautions if you are planning to camp in the winter.

1. Keep track of the weather forecast before you go camp. The weather can change on a dime in the winter.

2. Take more than enough food and preps. You never know what could happen and you might be stuck for a few days because of a snow storm.

3. Have several ways to keep warm. They have foldable wood burning stoves now that would help. Plus have sleeping bags that are graded for below zero weather. Have layers on with thermal underwear. Gloves are a must.

4. Navigation tools for getting anywhere safely in a winter storm. If you have to get anywhere to safety , you need to be able to navigate. Know you surroundings.

5. The right boot could save your life. It can get very slippery in the winter and you have to have traction. My son also has a great Folding Collapsible Travel Hiking Walking Stick Trekking Pole , that he takes with him every time he hikes and camps.

6. Only camp in places that are frequented by other campers and are known camping sites. You will be easily found and you can easily find your way out if the winter weather gets to bothering you.

7. It gets darker earlier in the winter than it does in the summer so have plenty of lighting and batteries.

If you prepare for everything - you can camp in the winter!

So Cool - USB powered items

I found this USB fan at a dollar store and it is supposed to be for plugging into a computer , but the neat thing is that it plugs and works off of the RAVPower 15W Solar Charger with Dual USB Port (Foldable, Portable, iSmart Technology) and the smaller solar powered USB charger also. So cool. Now it is making me want to get all of the USB powered items that I have ever seen LIke:

Neon® New Mini Black USB Fridge Cooler Beverage Drink Cans Cooler/Warmer Refrigerator for Laptop PC Computer (Black)

SunJack CampLight (TM) USB LED Bulb 340 Lumens - Cool White (for Camping, Hiking, Fishing, Backpacking and other Outdoor Activities, as well as Emergency)

iMBAPrice USB-MFAN USB Mini Desktop Fan

2-Pack USB Lightbulb, Set of 2 Camping Tent USB Powered LED Light Bulbs, Works with Any Power Bank, 5v 5w Emergency Led Light Bulb and Night Light, 40" Wire (White)

 There are so many neat things that work off of USB and could make living off-grid so much nicer.

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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