Who is responsible for your survival during a disaster

Who is responsible for your survival during a disaster?

You are, each of us is responsible for our own survival before, during, and after a disaster.

If help is needed, your neighbors would most likely be the first on-scene to assist.

Next in would be your local emergency workers, so it is essential to make sure your town has a robust emergency preparedness plan.

Relief agencies would also begin to help out at this time.

During a major disaster, your county would be called in to help as well.

State emergency management resources would step up if the county was unable to stabilize the incident.

And finally, your state’s governor would make a request for help from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) if they became overwhelmed.

As you can see, there is a lot of help out there for you, but you don’t want to be that person whose only preparedness plan is to wait for help. GET PREPARED TODAY!

How to store eggs for eight months without refrigeration.

How to store eggs

If you want to add eggs to your food storage plan, follow these steps.

Number 1 – Buy a bag of lime; there are two types, quicklime and hydrated lime. You want, hydrated. Hydrated lime, sometimes called slaked lime, is quicklime to which water has been added until all the oxides of calcium and magnesium have been converted to hydroxides.

Number 2 – Get a food-grade container big enough to hold the number of eggs you want to preserve.

Number 3 – Spread a thin layer of lime in the bottom of the container.

Number 4 – Pre-mix 1 ounce of lime into 1 quart of water.

Number 5 – Fill the container with eggs.

Number 6 – Pour the pre-mixed lime solution into the container.

Number 7 – Pre-mix another quart if the container has not filled to the top.

Number 8 – Pour a thin layer of olive oil on top to help with water evaporation if your container is not airtight.

Number 9 – Seal the container with a lid, and you’ll have eggs for a least 8 months.

This method of preservation was used before refrigeration and will keep almost all of your eggs good for eight months.

Here’s another way

Just place your eggs in a bucket and cover them with wood ash. The eggs may take on an ash taste, but 80 percent of them will still be edible after eight months in storage.

And finally, just in case you were wondering, eggshells are porous, which allows bacteria and mold spores to get in and spoil the egg. The porous shells also let moisture out, which ruins the egg over time. All preservations methods are trying to prevent this from happening.

Honey, the ultimate survival food

Honey is a great long-term storage food that can be collected from wild bee colonies or domesticated beehives. An average hive produces around 65 pounds of honey.

Ripe, freshly collected, high-quality honey at 68 °F should flow from a knife in a straight stream, without breaking into separate drops. When poured, it should form small, temporary layers that disappear quickly, indicating high viscosity. If it does not form temporary layers, it has high water content and will not be suitable for long-term storage. The amount of water absorbed by honey depends on the relative humidity.

The honey has to be stored in sealed containers to prevent fermentation, which usually begins if the honey’s water content rises much above 25%. The average moisture content of floral honey is around 17% and cannot have more than 18.6% water content to qualify for the U.S. Grade A standard.

When buying honey from a beekeeper, you will typically not get a jar with an expiration stamp. However, honey sold in supermarkets will have this stamp because of commercial requirements.

Honey jars stamped with the “best before date” suggests a shelf life of 2 to 5 years. This “best before date” on the jar helps in indicating “freshness” of the honey and in a way signals to the customers whether or not the honey jar has been sitting on the shelf for too long; nobody wants to buy honey that is already years old even if it lasts forever.

The quickest way to get you amateur radio (HAM) license

In the US, there are three amateur radio license classes—Technician, General, and Extra. You can get one or all depending on what you want to do.

The quickest way to get licensed is to focus on the Technician class

The Technician class license is the entry-level license of choice for most new ham radio operators. To earn the Technician license requires passing one examination totaling 35 questions on radio theory, regulations, and operating practices.

Get your Technician license in 5 easy steps

Number 1 – Download the free “Ham Tech” app to your phone or buy one of the many ham radio examinations apps.

Number 2 – Open the “Ham Tech” app in your spare time and take the practice exams under each topic until you have the correct answers memorized. If you do not entirely understand the reasoning behind some of the answers, don’t worry. You can get more in-depth after you get licensed.

Number 3 – Find out where the next amateur radio license exam will be in your area by going to the ARRL site and entering your zip code.

Number 4 – Show up on the date of the exam and take the test.

The Technician license exam is a 35-question test drawn from the question pool you have been studying in the “Ham Tech” app.

The question pool is divided into 10 groups. The groups are subdivided into question topics. There are 35 topics represented in the question pool. One question will be randomly selected from each topic to make up a Technician exam. You must correctly answer a minimum of 26 questions on the exam to obtain a Technician license.

Exam sessions are conducted by volunteers working under the direction of the FCC and a Volunteer Exam Coordinator (VEC). There will likely be a charge for taking the exam. The exam fee is set by the VEC and is usually $15 or less.

Number 5 – After you pass the exam, the VIC will give you all the information you need to finish the process.

I got my Technician class license this way. I hope this will relieve you of some of the stress many people have about this process. It is not a hard test. You can do it.

Having your amateur radio license will give you one more way to communicate during a disaster.

10 crazy hangover cures used by our drunken ancestors

It’s January 1st, and I need a hangover cure, so I thought I would go back in time to see what our ancestors used.

10 crazy hangover cures

Number 1 – The resin of the Commiphora tree (myrrh) and ground-up bird beaks. Yummy!

Number 2 – Pickled sheep’s eyeballs. You see where I’m going with this now, don’t you?

Number 3 – Lick your own sweat. Now that’s a salty treat.

Number 4 – Snort tree Ivy juice. Why not? You probably snorted worse last night.

Number 5 – Prairie oysters. Now that’s something I can do, raw eggs in a shot glass with whiskey and Tabasco.

Number 6 – Raw owl’s eggs and sheep’s lungs. Nope, I like number 5.

Number 7 – Rabbit dung. You can thank the American cowboy for this one. Yippee-ki-yay!

Number 8 – Skull dust, dried viper, and spirit of hartshorn. You can’t make this stuff up, and the skull has to be from a freshly hanged criminal.

Number 9 – Bull penis soup. Good luck with that one.

And finally, Number 10 – Fried canary. Now that’s just mean.

I hope you enjoyed this little look at the hangover cures of our drunken ancestors. Now go get some aspirin out of your medicine cabinet and be thankful.

Down feathers, how birds keep you warm

A bird’s down is a layer of fine feathers located beneath the tough exterior feathers that help keep it warm.

Those down feathers can keep you warm, too, if you buy a sleeping bag or coat that uses them for insulation. The loose structure of the feathers traps air, which helps insulate against heat loss.

In the United States, any product labeled “100% Down” must contain only down feathers. In contrast, products labeled “Down” can contain a mixture of fiber and feathers. Also, products labeled as “Goose Down” must contain at least 90% goose down, 10% goose feathers.

Down insulation is rated by fill power, which is the number of cubic inches displaced by a given ounce of down (in3/oz). Eider-down has the highest fill power, at 1200. However, even down with a fill power as low as 550 still provides reasonably good insulation.

Higher fill-power downs insulate better than lower fill-power downs of the same weight.

Most sleeping bags and coats range from about 400 to 900 fill.

Down rated 500–650 fill is warm enough and light enough for most conditions.

Down rated 800–900 fill is very lightweight and suitable for frigid weather.

Cared for down will retain its loft up to three times longer than most synthetic fill; however, there are downsides:

1 – When down gets wet, the thermal properties are virtually eliminated.

2 – Down forms clumps when wet and will mildew if left damp.

3 – Down will absorb and retain odors.

4 – Most down is collected after the birds are killed for meat, but in a few countries like Poland, Hungary, and China, the live-plucking of birds still takes place. The cruelty of this method should not be tolerated, so buy from companies that do not support this or by a synthetic fill.

A ride from Boston to New York in 1704

The Private Journal of a Journey from Boston to New York in the year 1704, by Sarah Kemble Knight, is a free ebook on Google Play that will take you back to a time when there was no power.

I started reading it and got hooked. It will make you appreciate the things we take for granted today. Here is an excerpt.

When we ride about an how’r, wee come into a thick swamp, wch. by reason of a great fogg, very much startled mee, it being now very dark. But nothing dismay’d John: he had encountered a thousand and a thousands such swamps, having a universall knowledge in the woods; and readly answered all my inquiries wch. were not a few.

Sarah’s journey took five months to complete there and back in the wintertime, crossing many rivers in the process; a trip that would today take about 10 hours.

I think you will enjoy reading her manuscript and might even learn something about a time without power. A time we could find ourselves in again if the grid goes down.

This is not a work of fiction, it is a real-life experience.

The Private Journal of a Journey from Boston to New York in the year 1704, by Sarah Kemble Knight

Preparation is what we have left when the plan falls apart

“Preparation is what we have left when the plan falls apart. Acquiring the skills necessary for survival is a part of this preparation. However, it takes much more than the knowledge and skills to build shelters, find food, make fires and travel without the aid of standard navigational devices to live successfully through a survival or evasion situation. Some people with little or no survival training have managed to survive life-threatening circumstances. Some people with survival training have not used their skills and have died. A key ingredient in any survival situation is the mental attitude of the people involved. Having survival skills and proper preparation are important. Having the will to survive is essential.”
U. S. ARMY CORPS, NAVY, AND AIR FORCE, U.S. Military Pocket Survival Guide: Plus Evasion & Recovery

Survival is a game of calories

Survival is a game of calories. You are constantly trying to mitigate calorie loss and look for sources of calories that make sense. If you spend an hour trying to grab a small fish in a frigid pool of water, you’ve lost hundreds of calories to gain just a few calories (and that’s assuming that you catch the little fish). It just doesn’t make sense. Sure, you’re hungry and bored, but the reward has to justify the expense. Stay mindful of your calorie intake and expenditures, and you’re more likely to make smart choices.
TIM MACWELCH, “3 Tricks for Staving Off Hunger in a Survival Situation”, Outdoor Life, June 20, 2017

An earthquake scale

An earthquake scale can give you a general idea of how much damage an earthquake is capable of.

Earthquake Magnitude Scale
2.5 or less is usually not felt but can be recorded by a seismograph.
2.5 to 5.4 is often felt but only causes minor damage.
5.5 to 6.0 can cause slight damage to buildings
6.1 to 6.9 can cause a lot of damage in a very populated area.
7.0 to 7.9 is a major earthquake with serious damage.
8.0 or higher is a great earthquake that can destroy entire communities.

As you can see, anything under 5.0 will not cause that much damage.