I always enjoy reading about what other people think are the “best” of anything because you never know what you might find and maybe, just maybe, you’ll come across something new.
In any case, the following article discusses eight useful bug out stove options, including rocket stoves (a personal favorite), hobo stoves, traditional butane or propane stoves, alcohol stoves, and more.
When you’re done reading I’m sure you’ll find a stove that’s right for you and your situation…
During a SHTF situation you must have a heat source that functions on readily available fuel to boil water for purification, cook, stay warm, and perhaps even to cauterize a wound. Quality survival stoves must be three things: lightweight, portable, and quick lighting. You might think that all lightweight emergency stoves are also portable, but that isn’t necessarily so.
What’s A Survival Stove? Before browsing for the perfect emergency stove to suit your needs, it is essential to define what a survival stove is and what it is not. A survival stove can be a camping stove – but not every camping stove is best suited for use during a SHTF bugout situation.
While many camping stoves are lightweight and portable, some are better suited for “glamping” and/or making a fuel traditional meal and to be set up for a weekend outing – no be toted along in a bugout bag. Larger camping stoves do have value as long as you are traveling in a vehicle and have stockpiled plenty of small propane tanks to power it.
Rocket stoves are another top quality off the grid heating and cooking option – but again, not necessarily designed with portability in mind. Because rocket stove comes in a variety of sizes, it is possible to make great use of a rocket stove’s rapid heating capabilities, only on a slightly smaller scale…
I happened upon this first video and then the never-ending YouTube trail led me to find the rest. I’d say that I definitely haven’t seen at least half of the gadgets shown in the following videos–possibly more–many of which look really interesting! Hope you find them as enjoyable as I did…
I’ve long been a believer that you MUST have your food storage squared away before a disaster hits because you simply won’t get much done if your mind is always focused on being hungry for lack of food.
That said, there are certainly plenty of other areas of survival to figure out too, but having your food storage done is a great start.
I should point out that I agree with most of the list presented in the following article. There are, however, a few items that I wouldn’t get carried away with stockpiling (at least not for any sort of long term storage) specifically some of the snack foods, such as cookies, pickles (yeah, it’s listed under snacks) and popcorn, to name a few.
Really, anything that would need refrigerated after being opened (such as the pickles) or that won’t last long (e.g., the cookies and popcorn) shouldn’t be at the top of your list, if included at all.
Instead, focus on the many canned foods (beans, fruits, vegetables, meats, etc.), mixes (e.g., pancake mix), drinks (to keep your taste-buds entertained), and higher carb foods (pastas, cereals) to start with. Everything else should follow after they’re squared away.
Here’s the beginning of the article for the top 100 foods to stockpile…
Disasters can and do strike without warning, and when they strike, most of the population is vastly underprepared. Truth be told, the vast majority of people aren’t prepared at all, and hardly anyone has enough survival food to last them through the month.
It’s for this reason that when a disaster occurs, hoards of people will swarm the grocery stores and supermarkets in order to get as much food as they possibly can. You could end up being one of those people if you don’t start preparing right now.
So take advantage of the comparatively small crowds and short lines you can find at grocery stores during the good times, because there could come a time when going to the store is like something out of a disaster movie.
This article will cover the primary criteria to follow when selecting grocery store foods that you want to store for survival. We’ll also list some specific foods you should consider getting, and we’ll share some tips on how to properly store all this food so it doesn’t go bad.
Criteria There are many criteria that you will want to keep in mind when stockpiling food for survival, including but not limited to each of the following, presented in alphabetical order…
I happened upon the following video earlier today and I couldn’t resist checking out what the guy had to say as I’m always looking to see if I’m missing something in my bug out bag–I’m not–especially something I may not have included in my 53 essentials book.
Unfortunately, the title is a bit misleading because it isn’t a mere five items but more like five areas of preparedness, specifically water (e.g., water container, purification), shelter (e.g., jacket, sleeping bag), self defense, a first aid kit, and food (especially food you don’t need to cook).
Regardless, everything he suggests is good to include. I might also include a pair of shoes you can walk in and a flashlight for sure! Not sure why any sort of light source didn’t make the top five list, lol.
My kid likes to watch YouTube videos about new gadgets and occasionally I watch them with him. One video caught my eye recently where it showed a few different door security ideas. This one on the Barricade Box was particularly interesting:
Even though it’s meant for schools I can see how the barricade box may be of use for some exterior doors at home.
Another interesting device I watched was about The Barracuda Defense System which also seem more applicable to office buildings or schools, but may find some applications at home too:
The final video I watched was about the Nightlock Door Barricade which is definitely more applicable to home security situations even though the video focuses on schools:
Anyway, I thought these door security devices were neat and figured you might find them interesting as well… and maybe you’ll find them useful for your home or to recommend to your school or place of business.
A few months ago I was sent this Drive Sleek Vehicle Signal Booster Kit in exchange for an honest review, and I can honestly say that I’m glad they reached out to me:
To be honest, I had no idea these even existed until the folks at Weboost.com sent me one. I’d always assumed you got whatever cell phone signal you got and that was it! Well, that’s not true at all. In fact, you can do a lot better than you realize with a signal booster such as this. I’ll explain in a moment.
Anyway, I was pretty excited when it arrived, but that excitement waned quickly because I realized there was some effort involved with installation:
As you can see from the above photo there are a few things to install, including running wiring and mounting things. Really, I thought it was something I just plugged into my auxiliary plug and it was ready to go. As such, I put everything back in the box and sat on it for a few weeks.
That was a mistake because, after I finally made the time to do this, it took me about ten minutes of my time (maybe less) to get it all installed. Really, the install was no big deal whatsoever.
Here’s what to do…
First, mount the antenna to the roof of your vehicle:
That’s really easy to do because it’s secured with a magnetic mount and then you just run a single wire into the cabin of the vehicle. Because I have an SUV it was easy enough to run the wire through the backdoor and along the weatherstripping. The only stipulation, they say, is to keep the antenna at least six inches away from glass. Again, no problem.
If you have a passenger car then you run it through any door you like and do the same thing I did. Just be careful to not pinch the weatherstripping such that it might allow water into the passenger compartment.
The next step was to plug in the antenna and get power to the booster:
This was all easily accomplished in the rear of my vehicle because I had an auxiliary plug in the back, but it’s just about as easy to run some wiring (they give you plenty) to the front of the car, if need be, to plug into the auxiliary plug on the dash.
FYI, the booster came with some heavy-duty Velcro to adhere it to a panel like I did in the photo above, but you probably don’t even need to do that so long as the wires aren’t getting pinched and connections aren’t getting bumped.
Once you have the antenna and power connected to the booster, the final step is to run wiring to the phone cradle itself:
Now, this could be a bit of an ordeal if you’re worried about running the wire behind trim panels and under carpeting, but it’s really not. And, as you might tell from the photo above, I have the cradle secured to the air vent with a handy mounting accessory they included for this very purpose.
Now, setup is complete. Really, it took me all of ten minutes at most to do this. But, I ran into a problem…
You see, a normal phone fits just fine and is quite secure in the cradle (this was my kid’s phone):
But my phone has an extended (bigger) battery which makes it deeper and, therefore, NOT fit securely at all:
…and this was a problem for me because the slightest bump would make the phone fall out of the cradle. But, I rigged a solution with an old plastic ruler and some zip ties like so:
Yeah, it’s not pretty but it’s been working just fine. And my phone fits well now:
As you can see from the photo above, the cradle isn’t attached to an air vent but, rather, to the dashboard using a different mounting solution which I prefer.
But, if you like the air vent option, it works fine too; however, it just doesn’t feel quite as sturdy in my vehicle… mostly because my air vents are old and don’t like to stay in position anymore:
Before you can use the signal booster, the manual–yes, I read one for a change–said I needed to register the signal booster with my cell phone carrier which was surprising to me, yet easy to do since they gave me instructions on how to do it. (Note: We have Verizon but they included the appropriate URL for AT&T and others.) Again, that took me only a few minutes to finish.
Once registered, the booster is ready to be used.
So, I did. And after months of use I can say three things…
Here’s What I Know:
The signal booster does boost a weak signal to make it stronger;
The signal booster doesn’t actually boost a strong signal to make it stronger;
The signal booster can’t boost a nonexistent signal.
Let me explain…
Since we live in the Pacific Northwest, we went with Verizon because they tended to get the best service here. And, for the most part, we have no complaints about our phone signals unless, of course, we venture deep into the woods or the Olympic peninsula where we don’t expect much of a signal. Around town where we live, everything is great.
That said, we don’t always get four or five bars of signal strength. Often two or three is what we get for whatever reason. I’d assumed, wrongly, that the signal booster would take that two or three bars I often get and magically turn it into five bars. It doesn’t. And I don’t quite understand why. No big deal, a few bars of 4G is fine.
What I have noticed is that the signal booster does make is so that those times where I’d normally get maybe a single bar of service or, worse 3G service, that this never happens anymore.
For example, my wife and I went to a spot where we knew we didn’t get a decent signal and after about an hour of driving around and testing, it was clear that the signal booster helped a lot. Whereas my wife’s phone would often have only a single bar of service, switched to 3G regularly, and even had the dreaded “1X” signal indication, my phone (in the cradle) never lost 4G service or dropped below two or three bars of service.
What the signal booster can’t do is boost a nonexistent signal. And though I’ve yet to put myself into a situation where I can test the limits, I plan on going deep into the Olympics this spring to places where I know our phones get no signal at all and see what the signal booster can do. I just haven’t made the time to do so yet.
Why A Signal Booster Is Useful
Anyway, why is this important? After all, if you’re getting at least some signal, isn’t that good enough? Well, sure, if things are normal… but not if your survival depends on it!
For instance, it could be that the nearest cell tower has been damaged, or that you’re in a spot where the signal is spotty anyway, or it could be that everyone else is trying to use their phones too which means your call or text may not go through… all of which is bad for you.
But, if you have a signal booster, that crucial call or text you’re trying to send when disaster strikes could very well get through!
Maybe the closest cell tower is down but the booster can reach out to the next nearest tower when your phone wouldn’t have been able to do so without it.
Or maybe signal is spotty because of a disaster and the signal booster ensures you never lose your connection. (And who’s to say if you’ll ever get through again.)
Or, because the signal booster makes your signal stronger, you’re then more likely to connect your call than other people which means your crucial call gets through when their’s wouldn’t.
Whatever the reason, I can see now how truly useful this Drive Sleek Vehicle Signal Booster Kit really is for disaster preparedness, and I hope you do as well.
My kid has been watching YouTube videos lately on neat, new gadgets and one that caught my eye was this Splitz-All Log Splitter. And, while I’m not quite sure it’s worth the price tag, the Splitz-All sure is an interesting way to split wood besides with an axe or hydraulic log splitter. Enjoy…
I’m really starting to like this guy a lot because he offers good, solid advice and clearly knows what he’s talking about with respect to wilderness survival. Today he’s discussing whether or not those trusty ferro rods every prepper–including me–tends to include in their packs is worth having… and stick around to the 12:00 mark to see his “trick” for fire starting.
I’m generally VERY against the cheap mylar “survival” space blankets mostly because there are better option and, honestly, people don’t use them right. I’m a much bigger fan of the SOL Heatsheets (two person version) which are discussed in the following video. That said, any such blanket has limitations and must be used appropriately as shown below…
