What is your best Preparedness Tip??

I want to hear from all of you. What is your best tip for being self sufficient, prepared, and self reliant?? Share with everyone what you do to save money and what you do to be prepared. I want to hear it all. You can email me at indywahm @ netzero dot com or post in the comments. I will make posts over the next several weeks sharing all of your tips ( and if you have a blog or website make sure you give me that link so I can share it, also!!)

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The Solar Cooking Archive

I just had to share this website with all of my readers. The Solar Cooking Archive is stuffed full of information about solar cooking. You can find out how to make your own solar cooker, news about them, recipes, and more.


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3 Reasons You Need Bleach in Your Disaster Kit

When you build a home disaster kit, or as some call it, a survival kit, the most important item to have besides a first aid kit is bleach. Not scented bleach but regular common bleach. You will discover that bleach not only cleans, it sanitizes, and purifies water.

Here we discuss three ways to use bleach in an emergency situation.

#1 Use Chlorine Bleach to Purify Water

When you are thirsty and the water supply has been interrupted, will you know what to do? If you have bleach handy, you can purify your own water.

You can use plain common bleach to eliminate most bacterial contaminates. The general rule is 8 drops of chlorine bleach (must be common bleach, not scented, not color safe) per gallon of water.


You can look this up on the Internet via a specific product label. I know one major label of bleach has a chart for purifying water.
Of course, you will want to print up the chart, either laminate it or place it in a sheet protector, and store in your safety kit.

Additionally, make sure you tape an eyedropper to your emergency bottle of bleach for easy use.

#2 Use Bleach as a Sanitizer

During storms, floods and other kinds of disasters, some raw foods and food surfaces may be contaminated. Bleach used in the correct proportions will make a good sanitizer.


Once again, using only regular chlorine bleach is essential. Again, you can look up the brand of bleach you bought for specific ratios to print up and store.
Using common test strips for swimming pools and spas will be helpful in determining proper ratios. Add a test kit to your disaster kit.

#3 Use Bleach as a Cleaner

Everyone knows that bleach is good for removing stains from clothes. Well, bleach is good for cleaning up messes made by floods and some other disasters.


Using bleach as a cleaner for cleaning up flood damage and water damages caused by rain will help you get your house back in order and sanitized. This is essential to cleaning up unknown bacteria that may have been swept into your home by floodwaters.
Once again, you can visit the bleach's website to print up and store proper cleaning solutions.
Over time, bleach will lose its potency. Therefore, every two to three month use your emergency bleach for your home and buy a new bottle of emergency bleach.

A bottle of bleach and a little expertise will help you survive many natural disasters.

Robert enjoys many business ventures and sharing his passion with others. As a businessman, he always has new projects going. Visit his latest adventure at http://officefurnitureforthehome.net/ where he shares his knowledge of Discount Home Office Furniture


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How to Eat During a Natural Disaster

When disaster hits, most people aren't ready. Most people think that food will be plentiful and all the stores will be open. That isn't the case in most natural disasters. People who don't prepare will suffer. People who plan will prosper. Planning ahead is the answer.

Food is Essential

Food is an essential that most people take for granted. If a storm hits, the stores will close. Do you have enough food in your house to feed the family for two to three weeks? Three weeks is generally how long people usually have to cope with in a disaster.

The Bare Minimum

The best way to be prepared is to build a home survival cache of food. You should have enough food to feed your family for at least one month. You will need ways of preparing the food as well. In most disasters, electricity will be curtailed, therefore:


Foods that require refrigeration and fresh foods will spoil before the month is out.
Pre-Packaged Ready-to-Eat Food

You might consider looking on the Internet to buy a food preparation kit for you family. This is the easy out, but it will be costly. If you haven't eaten MRE's (meals ready to eat), you might try them first. You might not like the food and things will be bad enough without putting up with food you don't like. Some taste better than others so:


Consider sampling them before you commit to buying large quantities.
Dried and Canned Food

The best thing is to buy the foods you like that are canned and dried. These foods last a long time and will make your time struggling through the disaster tolerable. If you are use to these foods, eating won't be a chore. Remember to cover the basic food groups to cover all of your needs.


Freeze dried foods and dehydrated pastas, as well as beans will help you vary your diet and make food more desirable.
Storing the Food

When it comes to storage of these foods, it is best to purchase or build a waterproof container or containers for storage. In the case of flooding, food will not do you any good if it is ruined. Dehydrated, condensed and freeze dried food will all ruin when it comes into contact with water.


There are many ways to store your food supply if you do your homework and plan.
Cooking the Food

As far as preparation goes, you will need a way to cook your food. You do not want to eat raw foods for a month. Therefore, a camping stove that accepts multiple types of fuel is best. That is where camping comes in. People who camp regularly will be ahead of the game. If you aren't a camper, it will be best to practice cooking on your camping equipment. If you have to use it in an emergency, you will be ready.


Check with your sporting goods store as to how much fuel and what kinds are best for extended cooking needs.

Robert enjoys many business ventures and sharing his passion with others. As a businessman, he always has new projects going. Visit his latest business venture at http://womensworkoutclothes.org/ where he has compiled reviews on Plus Size Workout Clothes.

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Family Survival Essentials to Help Get Off the Grid

How reliant are you on the products and services of others? We rely so heavily on the system that if the system went away many would be lost and desperate. We all use electricity and buy our food from the supermarket but if there was a major power outage and the supermarkets closed would you be prepared with a cache of survival items? Have you been watching the economy and our government lately? Look at what is going on in other countries; we are not that far away from similar events.

Supply lines for food distribution in this country are about three days, meaning a dependence on "just in time" distribution systems, which will leave store shelves empty in the event of even the smallest crisis. If you don't have the ability to grow your own food long term, your life could be in danger. Start by planting a garden to grow your own food it can be fun and rewarding as well. Learn about home canning to increase your survival food storage bank. For a small investment you will end up saving over time as the jars are reusable and this will get you started in getting off of the food grid. Find seeds that are authentic strains which are NOT genetically modified in any way. When the going gets really tough you will only want this special type of seed which will produce not only outstanding nutritional plants but will allow you to plant the seeds from the plants you grow unlike sterile hybrids that will not reproduce. Start your survival seed bank now!

Electricity is a little harder problem to overcome the avenue that I have chosen to overcome this problem is solar panels. They are expensive so I add one at a time to the roof when I can afford a new one and hope to eventually get enough to stop my meter or run it backwards. If you Google solar panels you will find a wealth of information about how they work. I chose this method over generators as I will eventually run out of fuel, they are noisy and you have to run them outside alerting your neighbors or other prying ears you do not want. Wind energy is not an option for me in my suburban setting however you may want to look into that as well. The first unit I recommend is a portable unit that does not hook into your home. It has its own battery pack in a self contained unit with one or two panels outside that you can position. This way I can power the basement refrigerator getting it of the grid and keep the unit charged while it pays for itself.

By using these tips you gain some independence from these systems, and start saving money on electric and grocery bills. In this economy it will only benefit you and if there is a disaster or heaven forbid the economy collapses you will be better prepared with these family survival essentials. You can find more information about these survival products by going to my web page (link in author resource box).

With all of the severe weather events seemingly on the increase I have been stocking some canned goods for an emergency. Last year when the wind storm from the hurricane came through my house was without power for two weeks. After this I began looking for ways to better prepare for my family and found a lot of good advice and products. Unfortunately I cannot share them all in this short article however you may find more information in my web page Family Survival Essentials.

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