When Decade-Old Rice Isn’t Safe to Consume
Someone recently posted in a preparedness forum asking whether 14 bags of dry beans and 4 bags of rice (three of them brown) were still worth keeping after sitting on a pantry shelf for 12 years. No Mylar bags or oxygen absorbers, and not in sealed cans. Just original store packaging and a decade-plus of…
Pool Shock “Time Bomb” Problem
The video below sums up the problem, but he explains that you cannot store pool shock “as-is” for long periods of time because (1) the packaging wasn’t designed for long-term storage and (2) pool shock is highly reactive with metal as the video footage showed. Personally, I don’t store pool shock for emergency preparedness purposes,…
Why Do You Prep? (And How to Get Others to Even Care)
September 11, 2001 is burned into the memory of just about every American who was old enough to understand what was happening. For me, it hit differently than it might have for others. At 25, newly married, and freshly out on my own, it was the first time I truly understood that catastrophic things can…
Could a Boat Be Your Best Bug-Out Option?
Most bug-out vehicle conversations center on trucks, 4x4s, and trailers loaded with gear. Roads, routes, and fuel economy are close seconds. Interestingly, waterways almost never come up. And honestly, for most people, that makes sense. But for some, ignoring water as a bug-out option might be a real mistake. Maybe. It came up recently in…
Innovative Plug-In Solar Power Solution? Maybe Not.
I like the forward-thinking of products like these, but I’m not sure that this DIY idea is for most people. First, the fact that it appears to just “plug right into the wall” outlet via extension cord is misleading because there’s more that needs connected at the breaker box, including interacting with the mains wires,…
You’re Not Prepping for Long Enough
A while back, someone posted a poll on Survivalist Boards asking members how long they were prepping for. The options ranged from 72 hours all the way up to “indeterminate.” What struck me wasn’t the poll itself, but how fast the so-called serious preppers dismissed the shorter timeframes entirely. Nobody with “real preps” was checking…
Uh, oh. AI is Coming for my Blog
I try to keep the “behind the scenes stuff” of managing my blog away from you because, let’s face it, you probably don’t care. Honestly, most of the time I DON’T CARE because it’s either tedious or frustrating … and now the recent update of WordPress (the platform that I, and millions like me, use…
DIY Walk-in Refrigerator Build
I once built a DIY root cellar in my basement where I kept vegetables and some other items that benefitted from being kept cooler, but didn’t need refrigeration. It was one of the first true “prepper” DIY builds I ever attempted, and I was proud of it. (I wonder if the new owners kept and…
Thermos Recalls – 13 Years Too Late
If people weren’t getting hurt, I’d say this was laughable. But, apparently, they’ve recently issued recalls for three types of Thermos food jars/bottles, one of which I’ve owned for over 13 years and have used several times, though it’s been a years. Worse? I know I’ve recommended them to people like you! I say this…
