achieving adventure

Today I give the first of a series about going off the grid. I discuss energy conversion and power efficiency and why you should look at it BEFORE going off grid.

* Housekeeping:

* zello

* First Aid Kit and Trauma Kit Webinar coming soon

* News Segment by J.Bradbury of PreparePDX.com (Let me know if you like this segment and maybe we can make it a regular thing):

* GMO Video: Josephine County Measure 17-58 Leadership Recap

* http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UK9bACCPI4A&feature=share

* Two Oregon Counties Vote to Ban Genetically Engineered Crops Despite Massive Contributions by Monsanto and Corporate Agribusiness

* http://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_30081.cfm

* Boil alert… Is Portland ready for a disaster? Experts say no (J.Bradbury

* http://www.katu.com/news/local/Is-Portland-ready-for-a-major-disaster-260608591.html

* Financial: The Size Of The Derivatives Bubble Hanging Over The Global Economy Hits A Record High

* http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/the-size-of-the-derivatives-bubble-hanging-over-the-global-economy-hits-a-record-high

* Mudslide: Colorado 4 MILE LONG Landslide

* http://youtu.be/1o9cvLE66ps

* 3 missing in Mesa County mudslide

* http://www.9news.com/story/news/local/2014/05/25/large-mudslide-mesa-county/9584285/

* Different Parts to Going Off-Grid

* Lower Power Consumption or Energy Use of your home

* Consider which alternative power option works for you

* What you need to know about batteries and battery banks

* Everything you need to know about inverters

* Many other items that we need to create a great battery bank

* But what about Generators?

* Lower Power Consumption and Energy Use of Your Home

* Real Cost of off-grid solar system

* Panels: $20,000

* Batteries: $20,000

* 30 years cost recovery

* Benefit of off-grid system

* Grid-Down Scenario

* Regional Disaster

* If grid-energy costs go up

* You save more on raising efficiency over purchasing power generation.

* $40k vs $30k (25k + 5k)

* Get real efficiency expert for consulting

* Work on effeciency

* Seal up cracks in home

* windows

* doors

* attics

* basements

* fireplaces

* Attic insulation

* roof pitch

* attic vent fan

* Seal ductwork

* 1/5 of energy costs

* our ducts disconnected

* duct cleaning

* Programmable thermostat

* cell phone control

* constantly turning it on and off

* Energy Efficient windows

* over $10k

* Wood insulates better than aluminum

* Storm Windows is cheaper

* Add Blinds or Curtains

* winter=black

* summer=silver

* black curtain=air flow

* Efficient doors

We all need the preppers emergency FAMILY survival guide, because we want to make learning fun for our family. We want to include them and to foster enjoyment in prepping.

*

My issue with Preppers:

* the do it yourself attitude (sort of)

* TEOTWAWKI will happen TODAY

* Traps that Preppers fall into:

* Acquisition of stuff

*  Stuff runs us

* Improper attitude (bulk storage vs good food)

* Financial ruin (stuff is expensive)

*

It isn’t all about hurry up and get stuff for preps

* It is about skill

* It is about family

*

How to Make Prepping a Family Activity

*

Food

* Gardening

* Plant

* Weed

* Teach them about the wild edibles in the yard, and what it means if you eat the wrong thing.

* Livestock

* Feed

* Collect Eggs

* Assisting in herding or paddock shifting

*

Water

*

* Teach them to conserve water

* You can teach the no-nonsense water acquisition techniques

*

* Bathtub

* Hotwater heater

* Rain catchment

* Wilderness Procurement

* Stills

* Ground Filtration

* Life pens

* Boiling and filtration

*

Shelter

*

Teach them to set up a tent

*

When you make repairs, include them in it

*

Teach them to build shelters in the wilderness

*

Security

*

Run drills

*

911

*

They should know where to go

*

Escape scenarios

*

Health/Sanitation

*

Teaching them first aid techniques

*

Wilderness sanitary etiquette

*

Go through contents of first aid kits

*

Teach about essential oils

*

Energy

*

Teach to build fires when camping

*

Let them in on your solar projects

*

Self-regulated rechargeable batteries (their own)

*

Projects

*

It may take longer (a lot) but if you include them in it

*

You build knowledge, skill, and IQ

*

You are doubling up your time and spending it with them

*

You teach them proactivity

*

Fun

*

Wrestle

*

Game night

*

Always strive to improve as a parent or spouse.

Related Blog Posts:

* prepping-how-to-charity-neighbours-friends-families

* fun-family-survival-how-to-be-prepared-survivalist-forum

* guidance-for-raising-healthy-families-children-kids-or-babies-in-survival

* proactively-living-your-best-life-vs-the-ill-prepared

* resilience: raising-strong-kids-teach-your-children-well

I interview J. Bradbury on the subject of Starting a small backyard Garden.  In this gardening 101 episode, we give small backyard ideas for growing your own food and how to start a vegetable garden in simple terms!

Guests: theprepperpodcast.com/guests/

Updates:

Loving the feedback on itunes, you can also check stitcher radio, zune, digital podcast, and podfeed.  Youtube coming soon.

Be sure to connect with me on facebook and twitter

Subject:

Starting Small Backyard Garden 101, Ideas, Growing Your Own Food with J. Bradbury of PreparePDX.com

Interviewee:

* J Bradbury

Introduction:

Background: Life long interest in disasters.

B.S. in Psychology with minor in Civic Leadership

Vet. in Coast Guard 2000-2004

Volunteered for two Emergency Managers

past CERT member

Numerous FEMA certificates (ICS 100-400) plus 20 more

Questions:

PDX?

What have you done to improve your gardening skills?

I don’t have the room to garden, what can i do?

Neighbor/friend/family

contract

What plants have you had success with, which have been a struggle?

what plants

when planted

What do you think you should do differently going forward?

What do see as the future for gardening?

Permaculture

Local Farming

Farmers Market

Community Garden

What would you say is the easiest, most actionable way for people to get started?

easy plants: herbs, lettuce, or what grows easy in your area

space at work

volunteer at local farm

Is it too late for people to start?

If it is, what would you recommend for them to do until they can start?

Additional Resources:

What are some sources on Youtube you turn to?

Larry Hall: Small Garden Techniques: https://www.youtube.com/user/larrylhall/playlists

John from Growing your Greens: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLnBuE20QUirU2qWzBRKCCx_gmpt3xXOj5

To meet people: www.meetup.com

discuss my local group I started.

How can people connect with you?

www.preparepdx.com

Twitter: https://twitter.com/ppreparepdx

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/PreparePDX/228271267208887

I am your Travel Checklist or Packing List Advisor today.  Allow me to explain some road trip tips and how to prepare yourself for ANYTHING that comes along!  So just listen up and I will give you tons of great advice to prepare yourselves prior to venturing out.

You are Vulnerable When Traveling

* Travel, Far from Home

* Less Supplies at our Disposal

* Unknown Future Weather Conditions

* The Intentions of Other People are Unknown

* We Don’t Know What “Areas” to stay away from

Auto Maintenance for a Safe Trip

*

Perform General Preventative Maintenance

*

Before Trips Prepare your Vehicle

* Have fluids changed

* Have good balanced tires

* Plenty of tread left

* You better have a spare tire

* Air Compressor

* Fill that tank up

* Just be sure your wipers aren’t too old

* Things to Have in your vehicle (not all inclusive.  For that go to my podcast about bug out vehicles)

* First Aid Kit

* Blanket

* Spare Fuses

* Flashlight with Extra batteries

* Flares/Reflective Devices

* Tool Kit

* Good even if you can’t do maintenance

* A good set with sockets (incl spark plug), wrenches, and screwdrivers minimum

* Luck is made!

* Extra Fan Belt (serpentine)

* Water

* Jumper Cables

* Duct or Electrical Tape

* Jack/Lug nut Wrench

* Sand, Kitty Litter (winter)

* Tow Strap

* Maps of trip

* Low Tech option

* Fuel Stops Marked

* Have your “Get Home Bag” in your car

* Just use your appropriately stocked Bug Out Bag for this

* One for each person

*

Items to have on you during your trip, even when not in vehicle

* Cash

* Payed for dinner

* Gun and Knife

* Know the laws

* Situational Awareness

* Sketchy Areas

*

Don’t be Dumb when traveling

* Don’t Go to Stupid Place with Stupid People and do Stupid Stuff

* Social Media announcements

* Talking to strangers

* Don’t let your gas tank go below half full

* Have an exit strategy

* something happens, the main roads may be blocked

* alternate routes are key

Related Posts:

Trip Survivalist: What to Take Traveling- Packing List

Winter Storm Names, Warnings, A Prepper List of Things Learned from Snow

I interview Vaughn Cassidy, survival combat expert from the Jackson, TN area, about Stress Inoculation training and its role in hand to hand combat and real world scenarios fighting.

To be a guest: http://theprepperpodcast.com/guests/

Local Prepper Group Update

Updated the Survivalist Blog with a video of our Anniversary, you can see all my videos at: cleversurvivalist.com/video/

Subject:

Drills For Stress Inoculation as it relates to combative scenarios

Interviewee:

Milton Vaughn Cassidy

Introduction:

Been involved in Survival Arts for almost Twenty Years.

Avid Crossfit trainer and martial art instructor.

He is currently writing a fiction novel about Vampires.

He is a professional environmental consultant and waste reduction specialist.

Where do you train?

Notes:

What is stress inoculation training?

What is the point to SIT? “real life” stressors in controlled environment

typical training scenario.

benefits of using stress inoculation training

staying safe during stress inoculation

advantage of full-force and full-speed offensive and defensive techniques

situational awareness, perception or analysis of dangerous situations

Effects of SIT on Post Traumatic Stress Disorder

Positive Pain Reinforcement

difference between SIT for martial arts and combat scenarios

taking a traditional martial art to real world effectiveness

Additional Resources:

SPEAR system by Tony Blauer

the Dog Brothers Die Less Often series

I discuss raising chickens. This includes how to butcher a chicken, what do chickens eat, chicken predators and pests, chicken health problems and diseases, and even more.

Housekeeping:

Name for the “survival budget” has been renamed.

How to Be a Prepper: One Year Emergency Preparedness List for Survival

is an all-inclusive plan to build self-reliance that will outlast greater than a one year disaster, while helping you become debt free and build a resilient investment portfolio and resilient life.

remember to give me an itunes review at theprepperpodcast/itunes

Last weekend in Nashville

 

Discussion:

 

Benefits of Chickens

Funny

Lots of eggs

Meat

What Chickens Eat

Foods for Chickens

Free-range birds

Paddock Shift

Parts of the Grass

first 50%

next 20%

last 30%

Chicken Tractors

Chicken Run (not great idea)

Chicken Treats

Meal Worms

Water Needs

Needs of your Chickens

Chicks

Heat Lamp know how

Not in the house

Check on them often

Shelter

Roosts

Cleaning

Open and Closing Door (idea?)

Dust Baths

Move them around so they don’t get smelly

Chicken Problems

Predators

Raccoon, Dog, Hawks, Coyote, Foxes, Predator Cats

Egg Predators

Minks, Skunks, Snakes, Rats

Pests

Worms

Lice

Mites

Ticks

Sicknesses

Infectious Bronchitis, Avian Pox, Botulism, Cholera, Mareks, Thrush

Paddock Shifting your Chickens

4 and 5 Paddock setups

stationary coops

Mobile Coops

Tractors and shifting

Butchering Chickens for Poultry

Roosters

Older hens

How to:

Humanely Butchering

Don’t feed the day before

Hang

Neck

Decapitate

Scald

Turkey Fryer on a propane burner

165 degrees F

30 seconds

Can Ice and scald again

Feathers pluck easily when done

Hang and pluck

Small hairs

propane torch to quickly remove stray hairs

Housekeeping:

I have everyone, and have for some time, that I needed for the beta testing

remember to give me an itunes review at theprepperpodcast/itunes

Discussion: Urban survival skills are needed for the modern day prepper with little land.  If you must be bugging in your apartment, listen up. Urban Agriculture is just one example of the skills you need.

Related Post: Apartment Prepper Survival: How to survive, food stores, etc

Many survival people overlook Apartment dwellers

No home or land to work with

Don’t live in an Apartment

too many close neighbors

they won’t be prepared

they will ALL be asking for help

limited space

too many regulation

this included suburban lots

I experienced this

Preparing the Apartment

First, Have a great bug-out plan

have a BOL

friends, family, land

have a BOV

http//theprepperpodcast.com/018

have a Bug Out Notebook

Have a great BOB

http://theprepperpodcast.com/004

If you MUST bug-in in an apartment

Water

2-2liter bottles per person per day

Keep a couple in the freezer

Use them in coolers

bathtub is 50 gallons, fill before storms

sinks are all 2-5 gallons

Food

copy canning

freeze-dried foods

both last a long time

both are edible with little to no cooking

Use window sills for planting

Plant on balconies

hugel planters, compost and topsoil

Utility Electronics

lots of flashlights or headlamps

Emergency radios with multiple power sources

one handcrank option

200W inverter

800W inverter

Really long extension cord

Inverter Generators

quiet

fuel in 15 gallon drums

Documents

Copies of important documents in a binder

keep originals in fireproof safe

Examples:

Licenses

Ownership papers

deeds

titles

Investment documentation

Bank Info

Birth Certificates

First Aid

Good All-inclusive first aid kit

Preferably kept in a backpack

keeps it accessible at home or on the go

Consider keeping 6 months to a year of maintenance meds depending upon expirati...

Housekeeping:

I made an update to my consulting calendar

remember to give me an itunes review at

Discussion: Starting a garden or Gardening 101.  Lots of information packed to assist you with your upcoming edible landscaping.

Why gardening?

More Info: Survival Tactics: Hunting and Farming at the Correct Times

Economic collapse scenario

Population over 315 million people leads to food shortage

Lots will be hunting

People have nearly extinced many species

Need to learn to farm before this

You will then be glad that you turned to farming

Soil

More Info: Making a Garden Plot: How to Make Soil Nutrient Rich

We destroy soil today

Tilling

Plants root at depth that they thrive at based on soil layers

Forest soil

14 in leaves as mulch

Constantly breaking down

Organic, rich humus, or dirt

We recreate this process:

Newspaper or cardboard

2-3 inches

4 inches of mulch

Late fall, early winter

Helps breakdown

Water area every day

Square foot gardening

More Info:

Square Garden Design: Guide to Square Foot Gardening Spacing

How to Get Plants to Grow (Raised square garden design)

Intensive management system

Uses high density companion planting

4×4’ raised bed

1 foot squares

Non-pleasing informational guide

Way to get started

Companion vegetables

More Info: Planting Companion Vegetables and Herbs

Benefits

Systematic

Symbiotic relationship of plants

Soil

Pests

Healthy insects and predators

Permaculture

Cuba was a mainly permaculture recovery

Build this into your systems and bug out locations

More Info: The Best Bugout Location ( BOL ) Development Ideas

Swales

Hugelkultur

Housekeeping:

I have made my calendar available for consulting: http://theprepperpodcast/calendar

Tweaking my budget based survival goals before beta release

Discussion:

I discuss Hugelkultur, what it is, and how to use it when starting a garden bed. I give Ideas for the use of hugelkultur mounds, or hugel mounds in your raised garden bed.

Hugelkultur: German, means “mound culture”

Mimics what happens in the forest

Helps retain moisture

Builds fertility

better drainage

getting rid of “wooden trash”

Creates a fungal culture in the ground, working with plants

more surface area to plant in

easier to reach plants

So what is a hugel bed? A big mound.

Hugel Mounds

usually 5-6 feet tall

at about a 60%-70% incline to make picking easier

How to build one:

Dig a ditch

5-20ft long

3-4ft wide

on or off contour?

Fill with wood

hardwoods last longer

gets rid of debris

don’t use:

cedar

black locust

black walnut

black cherry

Do use:

Alders

Apple

Cottonwood

oak, poplar, willow, birch

Wood is carbon… but it doesn’t rob nitrogen? Fill with nitrogen rich material.

Beans the first year (legume)

urine

green matter (grass, straw, compost)

Cover with compost

add a couple inches of straw

then a couple inches of compost

adds organisms to break wood down and adds nitrogen

Optional Fungal inoculant

spray on bed for quick start

white stuff

good organic matter will do fine

this matter is a key component in plant health

Add a layer of dirt

all the dirt from digging is put back on top and probably a little more from another location.

more green matter mixed in

build to 5-6ft, but the height is optional

Mulch the top

wood, straw, grass

for weeds and water

the beds will absorb water

more decomposition holds more water

decomposition creates heat in bed