Monthly Archives: December 2013

Going Under: Over One Million Lose Unemployment Benefits – Will Hit Five Million By End of 2014

Earlier this year government benefits for nutritional assistance were reduced after the expiration of emergency legislation that was enacted following the 2008 financial collapse. Nearly all of the 48 million people receiving food stamp distributions were affected. The move led to warnings from food pantries and recipients around the country who said that the $40 billion in cuts would leave many American families without the ability to put food on dinner tables across America. According to Feed America, the roughly $29 per family that would no longer appear on their EBT cards will amount to about 1.5 billion meals in 2014.

But that was just the beginning.

Because the government now claims that we are in a period of economic growth we will see more cuts to emergency assistance over the course of the next year.

And it starts today.

As of midnight Saturday some 1.3 million Americans who lost their jobs in the last two years and were left with no choice but to collect unemployment benefits due to the worst jobs market since the Great Depression have now seen their benefits expire.

Long-term unemployment benefits for 1.3 million Americans expired Saturday after Congress failed to pass an extension. Reinstating those benefits is expected to be one of the first priorities for congressional Democrats in the new year.

“Extending unemployment insurance is the right thing to do for millions of Americans who are trying to support their families,” Democratic National Committee chairwoman and Florida Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz said in a statement Saturday. “What makes matters worse, the loss of benefits comes just a few days after the holidays.”

CNN


This morning, the President placed separate telephone calls to Senator Jack Reed and Senator Dean Heller to offer his support for their proposal to extend emergency unemployment benefits for three months,” White House Principal Deputy Press Secretary Josh Earnest said in a statement.

“The President said his administration would, as it has for several weeks now, push Congress to act promptly and in bipartisan fashion to address this urgent economic priority.”

Obama says the abrupt cut-off in cash assistance during the holidays will hurt economic growth and jobs.

Fox News

Here’s the kicker. By the end of 2014 the number of Americans who will lose access to long-term unemployment benefits will be five times higher:

 

By July, another 1.9 million people will get the boot from extended benefits. By the end of 2014, 1.6 million more will be kicked off, totaling about 5 million Americans.

Bloomberg

Five millions Americans will be losing access to what essentially amounts to their paycheck. And we’re not talking about a $29 cut to food stamps. We’re talking about a mortgage payment, a healthcare payment, and funds to pay for essential utilities.

All of it will be vaporized by the end of the year. This will affect not just those five million people, but their dependents as well, which amounts to at least an additional 5 – 10 million people.

Congress and the President propose to extend these benefits for another three months, and most would suggest that this will avert the emergency.

That notion is laughable.

What happens after we kick the can down the road for another three months? Will President Obama somehow magically create 1.3 million shovel-ready jobs?

The problem is that there are no meaningful jobs available. So you can extend these benefits for six months, or even two more years, and we’ll be right back where we started once they expire – perhaps even worse off as prices for everything from food to utilities to health care rise unabated.

When a DHS Insider warned recently of a crisis of unprecedented magnitude within the United States he noted that we are in the midst of a long-term economic collapse.

Given what is transpiring around us, can anyone honestly say that our economy is actually recovering?

President Obama claims that failing to extend the unemployment benefits for these 1.3 million people will hurt economic growth and jobs. He has just broadcast the severity of the situation we face.

It should be clear that without government intervention and backroom machinations the entire system will come unglued. Stocks would crash, millions would be starving in the streets, and the violence that the Department of Homeland Security and US military have been preparing for would take hold across the streets of America.

That may sound sensational, but consider that just one week ahead of the cut to food stamp benefits of $29 per family the Department of Homeland Security spent $80 million to beef up security in New York City with the expectation that those who lost their benefits would start rioting. They know that we are rapidly approaching a breaking point, otherwise why would they be preparing for it?

The government has no choice but to keep pumping out money and emergency assistance, whether that be to people who have lost their jobs or the banks that provide the lending. The second (literally) that they pull back on the monetary, financial and economic intervention we will see a catastrophe that few can imagine.

It’s coming.

If you’re paying attention you can’t go a day without seeing the signs.

The only question is: Are you prepared for when it happens?

 

 Start now to make sure you are staying prepared.

 

Via: shtfplan

Treating Conjunctivitis- Pink Eye Naturally and Cheaply With Olive Leaf Tea

Another great post from : pennilessparenting.com

I hate pink eye. It’s gross looking, uncomfortable, and highly contagious. If you’ve never had the “privilege” of having pink eye (officially known as conjunctivitis), it’s when your eyes start oozing yellowish pus and the eye looks blood shot, and usually under the eye is either puffy or discolored or both. (If you want to see some nasty pictures of what pink eye looks like, if you’re still not sure what I’m talking about, click here.) If you have pink eye, you may find your eyes glued/crusted shut from all the pus. And worst of all, if you touch one eye that has pink eye, and don’t wash your hands very well after, and then touch another eye after, that new eye will likely get infected as well. Pink eye passes from one eye to the other and from person to person easily. Even when treating pink eye, you need to treat each eye separately so as to not potentially pass the infection back and forth…
(I am pretty sure kids are more likely to get pink eye than adults, but I don’t know this for certain.)

Anyhow, now after that long, icky introduction, I just had to say that my little Anneliese developed a case of pink eye. So gross to look at, made her look so pitiful.
Some people rush to the doctor to get medicine for pink eye immediately, because it is highly contagious, but I never do that. I don’t think, in my 6+ years of parenting, and more than one case of pink eye, that I’ve ever treated pink eye with medicine from the doctor. And that’s because natural remedies simply work so well, and are safer and much cheaper to boot.

If you’re nursing and have breastmilk, breastmilk treats pink eye very well. It has antibacterial and antiviral and other healing properties- when my babies had pink eye that was all I ever used and it went away.
Couldn’t do that for Anneliese, though, because though I am still nursing her, I don’t really have any milk left, can’t use it for healing things. So I had to figure out an alternative.
I had heard of using black tea bags to treat conjunctivitis, but I had no personal experience with it, and I decided I wanted to try something else, something cheaper that would probably be more effective- olive leaf tea.


We have many olive trees growing around, so we can get olive leaves easy and for free. (But if you can’t get them free, you can buy them online, in places like this). I thought to try to use olive leaves to heal her pink eye because of olive leaf’s amazing medicinal properties, among which is the fact that it is antibacterial, antiviral and anti microbial in general. Since pink eye can be caused either from a virus or a bacteria, using olive leaf tea to cure it hits two birds with one stone.

To make the tea, simply boil a bunch of olive leaves in water for a few minutes. You can also pour boiling water onto the leaves and let it seep, but it is less strong that way.

To use it to cure pink eye, just dip cotton balls in the olive leaf tea, and wipe the eye with it (and squeeze some of the tea into the eye if you can). Use separate cotton balls for each eye (because of the reasons I mentioned above) and repeat a few times a day.
I found after just one application, the eye got much better, and after a few it was completely gone.

I highly recommend this treatment for pink eye.

(P.S. My daughter cried when I applied it, so I was afraid it was stinging her eyes, so I tried it out on myself- doesn’t hurt at all. She just doesn’t like people touching her eyes.)

And if you, fortunately, don’t have pink eye, olive leaf tea is great for so many other ways. We drink it on a regular basis just as our drink (diluted a bit, without sugar) instead of water, either cold or hot. It tastes like green tea, and is good for so many things. Not only for healing viral or bacterial illnessess like colds, the flu, etc… but also as a preventative. Since we started drinking olive leaf tea regularly, we find we don’t get sick as often, even when we think we might. (Some times we feel our throat getting scratchy- drink two cups of olive leaf tea, and feel better in the morning…)
Olive leaf tea is also helpful for people with heart issues, such as cholesterol, high blood pressure, etc…
It also has 4 times as many antioxidants in it as green tea…
I mix olive leaves with black tea to make olive leaf kombucha, which makes olive leaf tea even more healing, since kombucha is also very healing for the body. (For a mason jar of kombucha, I usually do one black tea bag, and the rest of the tea olive leaf.)
(In case you were wondering, my research showed up that olive leaf tea is totally fine for pregnancy.)
I’ve also been known to throw in some olive leaf tea in various things I’m cooking, like soups, etc… and no one can tell the difference…

Anyhow, I just had to share about this wonderful treatment for pink eye and so many other things.

 

 Start now to make sure you are staying prepared.

 

Via: pennilessparenting

Coffee – Can You Go Without?

When SHTF, I know one thing that I absolutely cannot do without is my cup of Joe. It’s not just me either. The entire world runs on coffee. Think about what it would look like if coffee were to run out in the next year. We’d all be walking zombies and crazier than ever trying to find our fix. Don’t believe me. Just go a morning without it and tell me how you feel. Not very pretty, I know.

Since all of our veins run thick with java joe, we need to find the best possible way to store this liquid black gold for emergencies.

Now I know this topic has been discussed quite often, but I’d like to really cover it in depth. I’d also like to share some of the reasons I prefer to store in cans over other methods. Believe it or not, there are quite a few benefits to this. I’ll tell you exactly why below.

First, let’s talk about what makes coffee go bad.

  1. Coffee Decay
  • Oxygen
  • Moisture
  • Light -UV
  • Heat

If you can control these 4 elements, you are guaranteeing a much, much longer shelf life out of your beans. We’re talking 10, 20, or 30 years instead of 2 or 3.

When you roast coffee, the beans split open and are immediately exposed to all the elements that begin the decaying process- moisture, light, and oxygen. This gives them a pretty short life span of a couple weeks. When coffee is green or raw, the beans or seeds have yet to actually open thereby giving them much more resistance to these elements. This the reason that green, unroasted, raw coffee beans are absolutely the best type of coffee to store if you’re looking for long shelf life(in my opinion).

I know you’re probably grumbling right now saying, “but I don’t want to have to roast the beans later”, or “I have no idea how to roast beans”. Hang on though because we’ll get to that later, and believe me, roasting is actually very simple. So recap, why store Green Beans over Roasted? In short, longer life which is what you want for emergencies.

  1. Storing Your Coffee Beans

Ok, so we’ve talked about what makes coffee go bad so before we actually put the beans in cans or containers and store them away for 10-20 years, we have to make sure they are packaged and protected completely. Let’s start with each element.

Coffee Bean Selection

Ok first off, none of what I’m about to tell you will matter if you are trying to store crappy coffee beans that cost a couple dollars per pound and comes from who knows where. It all starts with quality coffee beans. Choose your selection wisely and don’t be too frugal when it comes to this part. Buy the better beans . You store crappy coffee rocks, and you’ll open up a nice fresh supply of crappy coffee rocks. This is pretty self-explanatory I think.

Moisture Protection

According to the Specialty Coffee Association of America, the standard for all Arabica coffee beans (the majority of all coffee) should have a moisture content level between the range of 10-12%. You can find the standards here. Also, take a look at this study from the University of Hawaii that confirms the optimum moisture content levels to be between 9-12% and why.

This is very important because with too much moisture, the beans are susceptible to mold and fungus(see below) -even more so for prolonged periods of time. Too little moisture and the beans begin to dry out and crack leaving them more susceptible to oxygen decay. We wouldn’t want our beans ending up like the photos below when we try to open them 10 years down the road. This is why it is very important to do it right from the beginning before we just throw the beans into sealed containers and hope for the best. So try to verify the moisture content levels of your beans if you can before you store them. Also, it wouldn’t hurt to throw in a couple food-grade desiccant moisture absorbers just to help with any humidity levels that are present at the time of packaging.


Oxygen Protection – Let’s talk about protecting from oxygen. Now, oxygen is not quite as big of a problem when the beans are green as opposed to roasted beans because as I said before, the beans are still hard as a rock seeds. This allows them to keep really well and resist the effects of oxygen better, but not entirely. It’s still a great idea to add in oxygen absorbers, or vacuum seal your containers when adding your beans. The less you have in there, the better overall, and we are aiming for as long as possible so it wouldn’t hurt. Oh, and one thing to note is that you want to make sure they are food grade.

UV Light Protection – We all know that UV causes things to break down. It’s natural and it’s just the way it is, but it’s also fairly simple to protect from. Just make sure you use bags that keep out the light. No clear, see-through bags here. See why clear plastic vacuum-sealed or ziplocs aren’t the best for this. I guess they could be if you store them in a dungeon free and clear, but we don’t want to have to limit the location of our food storage just because we used clear bags to seal our beans.

Heat Protection – This is also very easy to manage when you are storing the beans because they most likely won’t be reaching temps in excess of 100F(hopefully). If so, try to keep them somewhere cool or room temperature whichever.

Large Quantities vs. Small

Now that we’ve got the beans prepped and ready to go, what sizes do we choose for storage? Most preppers buy in bulk so it only makes sense to store in bulk also. Bulk meaning 10-25-50lb quantities at a time. My experience is that while you can store a lot more easier, most forget about actually using their stored coffee beans when the time comes. It will be pretty hard for someone to use all 50lbs of coffee at a time when you open them and oxygen, moisture, light, heat can get to them again. They’ll probably start getting stale by the time you’re finished with your supply.

My advice is to ration your bean storage to what you will need in the future at your current rate of consumption. Calculate the amount of coffee you’ll need per person. 16oz or 1lb of dry coffee will give you roughly 30 cups of liquid coffee.(standard coffee cup is 6oz). So for an average person drinking 1 cup of coffee every day, you are going to need (7days*1cup=7cups/week *4 weeks= 28cups/month). Given that 1lb equals roughly 30 cups of coffee, you’ll need roughly 1lb dry coffee/month/person. Now, hang on before all of you jump on me for the numbers. This is a general idea, and obviously it all depends on how you like your coffee, consumption sizes, etc… I’m just trying to give an overall picture here. You’ll have to figure the numbers for yourselves.

Now that my head is spinning with all that long division let’s talk about another benefit of storing coffee in small quantities is. Bartering! Yes, we all know that when things do down, that also means our current world of economy as we know it and we will be back to the basics. Having smaller sizes for this liquid black gold is ideal for trading.

Storage Containers

Now that our beans are prepped and we know what sizes we want to store, let’s evaluate our different storage containers. Mylar bags or Cans. I’ll just run through advantages and disadvantages of each and allow you to make your own decision. They are both great options and really depend on your own situation and preference. Let’s take a look.

  1. Mylar Bags

Storing with mylar bags, I think everyone would agree that mylar is probably the cheapest, easiest solution to get started, but this doesn’t come without consequences. Being that it is a clear plastic bag made from polyester resin, the lightweight and flexibility of it make it also very susceptible to tears when rotating inventory. Another disadvantage would be that it offers little protection from mice, rats, or bugs because they can chew right through the material. The delicate nature of the material means you need to be a little bit more careful handling it. While I’m not exactly sure what the shelf life of mylar bags are, I’d be willing to bet that it isn’t quite as long as storing in cans. This brings me to the next storage container.

  1. Cans

Let’s talk about the disadvantages first. Obviously cans are a bit more expensive than mylar, heavier, and harder to seal up. These drawbacks are seemingly big at first, but when it comes to the advantages, I know you’ll agree that these seem pretty minute. Cans are one of the only storage containers that offer a true 100% gas barrier. Which is probably why food stored in cans are able to guarantee a shelf life of 25+ years. These tried, true, and tested containers are great for protection from mice, rats, bugs, and other varments as well as rough handling. They are incredibly durable and stack well with other canned food supplies you may already have.

Both of these methods are great for storing beans, and it really comes down to what your preference is. You decide what’s best for you.

Coffee Done

All that being said, I now want to turn our attention back to the coffee beans. Here is the reason I wanted to walk you through the storage process. It’s because you need to understand how to do it right the first time before wasting your money and throwing coffee beans into some iron-sealed bags and calling it day. It may look great now, but the whole point of doing this is so that you can enjoy the fruits of your labor when you really need it. Trust me, you will need your Java Joe and you’ll be pretty ticked if you open up your coffee to find bugs, mold, or fungus, on your beans right when you’re having a zombie panic attack.

Can Someone Just Do It For Me?

I have searched high and low for a company that really focuses on coffee storage, and found none that was really serious about storing them right. I don’t know about you, but coffee is as important to me as beans, bullets, and band aids. Ok, not really, but you know what I’m saying.

Introducing Happy Home Foods. I decided to just do it myself and invest in the equipment to make sure it is done right. Kind of expensive, but it is my hope that I can help everyone who wants to package their coffee in a secure and safe way to ensure the longest storage life possible. I came up with Happy Home Foods to help save the time, expense, and energy for my customers who just need it done. You can take a look at it here on eBay and if you want to try it out you can. Please feel free to order a single or even a case and let me know what you think.

Happy Home Foods -Case of 9

Happy Home Foods – Single Can

Why Happy Home Foods – Coffee

  • Extremely Long Shelf Life – Expected 10-20 years
  • 100% Handpicked, Premium Brazilian Arabica Beans
  • Sealed Against the Elements- Oxygen, Moisture, UV
  • Makes up to 45 cups of coffee per can
  • Strict Quality Control Packaging Process Protects Coffee Freshness (9-12% Moisture)
  • 1 Coffee, Unlimited Roasts
  • Re-Usable Plastic Lid
  • Great Barter Item
  • Perfect Ration Size
  • Canned in the USA

Oh, and as for the roasting instructions, all you need is a pan, heat source, and 15 minutes to roast the freshest cup of coffee you’ve ever had. Here are the steps that we place on every can so that you don’t forget.

Roasting Instructions

Use Any Pan-Cast-Iron, Non-stick, Skillet

Step 1: Heat pan over medium high heat on stove or fire

Step 2: Pour half the can of beans into pan

Step 3: Stir constantly for the entire process

Step 4: Stir until you hear the first crack – Light Roast (7-9 minutes)

Step 5: Continue stirring until you hear second crack – Medium Roast (9-12minutes)

Step 6: Beans will become dark and shiny – Dark Roast (12-15)

Step 7: Remove from heat and strain flaky skins(chaff) with colander by shaking *Careful, very hot*

Step 8: Allow to cool and rest openly for 4 hours

Grind and Enjoy the Freshest Cup of Coffee Ever Tasted

I hope this article has at least helped you become a little bit more educated on some great ways to store your coffee beans, and I look forward to Happy Homes helping you keep the peace in times of chaos with your fresh green coffee beans.

 Start now to make sure you are staying prepared.

 

Via: shtfblog

How to Turn a Christmas Popcorn Tin into a Self-Contained, Grab-‘n-Go Bundle of Life-Sustaining Survival

Guess post by P.J. in Oregon

I love popcorn tins! I love all the different ways they come decorated – the wonderful Christmas themes, the various John Deere Tractor motifs, professional sports team logos, stock car racing favorite drivers and their race cars, the endless and delightful cartoon characters – just to name a few. They are like time capsules in that their outside decoration reflect what’s popular in the culture during any given year. When they are displayed on a shelf, looking at them is like going back in time. I can’t get enough of them!

Not only are they decorative, but popcorn tins are versatile. They are the perfect size for storing many prepping items and because they are metal, are especially good for keeping long term food storage safe and secure. Apart from being the ideal size for systematic shelving, they keep out bugs and other vermin. Mice can’t chew through steel.

The lids on these tins are typically very tight, which also make them ideal Faraday cages. Just line the inside with cardboard (including the lid) and put in the electronics you wish to protect from EMP.

I have stored a variety of items in Christmas popcorn tins but none more important than my long term food storage. Each of my tins hold a week’s worth of food for 3 adults, including coffee, tea, spices, serving plates, cups, utensils, and matches. When I get a shiny new popcorn tin, after sharing and enjoying all the delicious popcorn inside, I turn it into a self-contained no-brainer grab-‘n-go little bundle of lovely life-sustaining survival!

There are 3 adults in my immediate household, so I prep for 3. My goal is to pack one week’s worth of nutrition in every tin PLUS all the items necessary to consume the food, conserve water, and make life easier during what will no doubt be stressful times. When my tins are packed and shelved, I can see at a glance how many weeks and months of food I have on hand, and it makes rotating the perishables from each tin very easy.

Of all the foods in a long term food storage plan, no better food items have been found to be the overall best for sustaining life than beans and rice. Cheap to buy and easy to store, when rice and beans are cooked and combined they are the supreme complimentary nutritional food creation which gives a human being a near-daily requirement of usable protein, essential vitamins and minerals. When one adds additional protein, spices, and vegetables – it becomes almost a perfect meal. So the core components of my popcorn tin are 20 pounds of white rice and 10 pounds of beans.

A serving of rice has long been held to be “a handful” or ½ cup. When cooked, white rice will expand to be twice it’s size, so ½ cup of dry rice expands to be one cup of cooked rice. In a 20 pound bag of uncooked rice, there are 20.154 cups or 40.3 ½ cups. If using long grain white rice, there will be about 200 calories in a ½ cup dry/1cup cooked serving. Nutritionally I plan on serving one cup dry/2 cups cooked serving of rice per adult per day, which translates into about 400 calories per day per adult from rice alone. So a 20 pound bag of rice = just under 2 cups of cooked rice per day per adult for one week.

Now lets look at beans. My household ‘s favorite beans with rice are black beans, so I heavily favor black beans. I round out my bean varieties with pintos, great northern and red beans as well. Personally, I think black beans are the easiest to cook, even under primitive conditions. And they take seasonings well, giving you a nice variety of tastes.

Nutritionally speaking, black beans are among the powerhouses of the legume family. So long as you don’t skew the proper ratio of rice to beans and serve too much rice and not enough beans. When beans and rice are combined they form the almost perfect useable protein. Individually, rice and beans are incomplete proteins. Together, they complement each other and create a complete protein. As such, they are a good replacement for meat at some meals. Rice and beans also contain vitamins, minerals and fiber.

What is the perfect ratio of rice and beans? I prefer 2:1 with beans being 2. If I cook 3 cups of rice for one meal for 3 adults, then I prepare 6 cups of beans. That might seem like an awful lot of beans, but keep in mind that if eating beans and rice alone with no meat, then you need more beans to get enough protein. 1 cup of cooked black beans = about 15 grams of protein. One meal of beans using my portion sizes gives each adult 30 grams of protein. (Recommended daily = 46/60 female/male). With the protein from the additional meat, not to mention the protein in our other snacks and milk drinks, we meet and/or exceed daily protein needs. So, o ne pound dry beans = six cups cooked beans, drained. One pound dry beans = two cups dry beans. There’s the 2:1 ratio. By storing a 10-pound bag of beans in the one-week food tin, we would have enough to even feed a guest.

I use different beans, (principally pinto, great northern, and red beans) for each tin to keep some variety and to avoid ‘food fatigue.’ But it’s the addition of different kinds of vegetables and seasonings that truly help to combat food boredom and increase nutrition. But I don’t stop there.

At the bottom of my tin, I place 6-7 cans of vegetables that my household personally enjoy with rice and beans, which complement the meal and enhance the flavor. Canned goods such as stewed or diced tomatoes, mixed vegetables, and even whole kernel corn. For additional flavoring I pack salt, pepper, packets of bean and rice flavorings, dry soup mixes, bullion cubes, as well as straight spices individually stored. To save space or add more food, you can store cans of tomato paste.

On top of those canned vegetables I put in a small canned ham, 2-3 cans of white meat chicken and a can of vegan cutlets. Next I pack enough paper plates and plastic utensils for a weeks worth of meals. Having these will save water from having to be used to clean too many dishes. On top of that I pack 10 pounds of beans, and 20 pounds of rice, each in their own mylar bag with oxygen absorbers and sealed. Tucked down in the crevices are my seasonings, spices, breakfast bars, snack jerky, peanuts, trail mix, dried fruit/fruit leathers, tea bags, individual coffee packets, dry coffee creamer, packet sugar, powdered milk, hard candy and daily vitamins, all also sealed in mylar and labeled.

Before closing the lid, I place a few large Ziploc bags on top and tape a bundle of waterproof matches to the underside of the lid. A week’s worth of breakfast, lunch snacks and one main meal for each day. Calories per day vary between 1800 – 2200 for each adult. Daily minimum protein requirements covered and/or exceeded. I mark the date packed on the bottom of the tin and under the lid because I don’t want to mar the lovely decoration on the outside. Tins are stored on a shelf and rotated through by date. When we empty one tin, I know it’s time to put together another one.

In a separate food grade bucket I have my cooking tools: small portable propane stove with fuel canisters, a volcano stove (for boiling water), Esbit stove, fuel cubes, a thermos bottle, a collapsible water carryall, water purification tablets, large spoons, wooden spatulas, cook pot, small skillet, fire starter, dish cloths, ditty bag for cleaning kitchen prep tools Girl Scout-style, plus additional snacks and spices. The various means to boil water and cook the rice and beans also include over an open fire, hence the fire starters, and waterproof matches.

The thermos bottle is for more individual cooking of the rice and beans and for storing food to stay warm. One never knows what circumstances you’ll encounter in a bug out situation and separation may happen or be prudently required, hence the various means to accomplish the same task.

My other non-food preps are generally stored in large cargo container-type boxes, but my bug out grab-‘n-go items are in #5 food grade buckets with labels detailing what’s inside. We have fit everything we need to bug out with in six buckets and will grab-‘n-go with as many of my survival food packed popcorn tins that we can fit in the bug out vehicle. Each one of the popcorn tins represents a week’s worth of food for three adults. We will know exactly how much food we have and how long it will last.

If rice and beans are not your favorite foods, then consider packing a popcorn tin with foods that will meet or exceed all nutritional needs, combat food boredom, provide for caffeine intake, snacks, and spices. The challenge is to fit enough food in the tin that will meet all nutritional needs 2-4 people. Can you do it?

Unless and until we may need to grab-‘n-go with our popcorn tins filled with our survival food, it’s comforting to see them all lined up on the shelf. They represent our will to survive and thrive, and they look pretty, too!

In addition to their usefulness for food storage, steel popcorn tins also make great Faraday Cage containers to protect small electronics from the effects of solar flares and electromagnetic pulse (EMP.) No modification of a tin is required, and grounding a Faraday container is actually counterproductive. Just wrap your electronics in plastic bags, place them in a steel popcorn container and push the steel lid down firmly. If you live in a humid climate, be sure to toss in a bag of silica gel desiccant, for good measure.

 

Start now to make sure you are staying prepared.

 

Via: survivalblog

First gov’t “bullet-hoarding” – now THIS!

If you’re like me, you keep your eyes and ears open for “warning signs” of crisis that could threaten you and your family.

As I’ve always said, if you want to see the ultimate “canary in the coal mine”, look no further than the actions taken by our own government.

For example, a while back, the U.S. government bought up a buttload of our nations ammo supply, forcing us all to scramble around for personal defense ammunition.

But now they’re even looking to overtake our emergency food supply!

You see, a friend of mine produces affordable “survival food kits” and recently received this letter from a representative from FEMA…

 

Basically they demanded to know…

  • How much of emergency food could be delivered immediately…
  • How many food kits were on hand for a “state of emergency”…  (With the government’s power to seize supplies in a quote “state of emergency”, I don’t think I want to answer this)
  • And the strangest question of all… if they worked like mad men, how much emergency food could they produce in 24 hours!

I gotta tell you – I’m real concerned.

This letter is proof that FEMA wants our emergency survival food.

They don’t want anyone to know it… and they want to take immediate delivery at a moment’s notice should anything “happen”.

Why the sudden urgency? What do they know that we don’t?

Look, if you’re smart and can spot the “warning signs”, you’ll do like me…

Stock your own “emergency food kits” to feed your family during a disaster or crisis before the government grabs them all up and grocery store shelves are ransacked by mobs of your unprepared neighbors.

I personally have a year’s worth of food that all fits inside of one closet and here’s the brand I personally bought for my family…

It’s the most affordable I’ve found and I’ve tested the food and it’s delicious (unlike MRE’s or other sources).

You can start small and build from there but don’t wait on this, ok?

2014 is going to be a very strange year and the time to prepare ISN’T when a crisis is already happening, right?

 

Start now to make sure you are staying prepared.

 

Via: Modern Combat & Survival Magazine

The Armchair Prepper

Awhile back I worked with a guy who talked a hell of a game.  If he ever got caught in the woods he’d just take his shoe laces out and make a bow drill.  He’d catch some deer with his pocket knife and live like a king.

If TSHTF he was fully prepped.  He had plenty of guns and ammo and would just show up and take whatever he needed.  No kidding!

This guy has a bunch of issues as you can tell, but the part that got me was he was a really smart guy.  I mean really smart.

But as to making a bow drill from his shoelaces he didn’t have the first idea about wilderness survival.  He was horribly out of shape and got winded walking from his car downstairs to where I work.  I tried picturing him walking around looking for the right materials to make a bow drill and just couldn’t do it.  He’d be puffing and wheezing and probably have a heart attack before he’d walked a mile.

By announcing his intention of showing up on someone’s doorstep (he jokingly said my doorstep) he blew his OPSEC out of the water.  I made a mental note to myself that if I ever saw this idiot come on my property after TEOTWAWKI he’d be leaving much better ventilated than when he showed up.

Seriously, the guy was a blowhard and I didn’t take him or his threats too seriously.  He was an ok guy, but liked to talk a big game so he wouldn’t look bad.  Unfortunately for him he didn’t realize how stupid this made him look to others who are  prepared and have the proper skills and knowledge to survive awhile in the bush if need be.

The Armchair Prepper

I’m sure we all know a person like this.  They’re an expert on something – or everything – and they’re quick to let you know it.  If you’re new to prepping don’t be fooled by this guy.  If you listen to him too seriously you might wind up being worse off then if you didn’t prep at all.

A sure sign of this person is that they talk like they’re an expert, but when you try to get details out of them or ask for specifics they’re suddenly too busy to talk to you.

Most of us can spot this guy a mile away and over the years I’ve learned to steer clear of him.  If he’s in the woods bumbling around I avoid him.  I’ll make sure he’s not going to get into trouble or get lost, then continue on my way.  If he’s out back shooting I’ll stay the hell away.  Hopefully he won’t shoot himself, but if he does I don’t want to be anywhere nearby.

These guys won’t listen to you.  Why should they?  They already know everything.  Just ask them and they’ll tell you.

If TS ever really does HTF you’ll probably need to keep an eye on this person.  Chances are good they’re not properly prepared, but they might just have plenty of ordinance like my coworker and could cause trouble if they get desperate enough.

 

Start now to make sure you are staying prepared.

 

Via: shtfblog

Push of a Button: This Is How Fast They Can Lock Down the Entire Banking System

Late last week it was learned that some 40 million charge cards were obtained using physical processing systems located in Target retail locations nationwide. Though no details of the how the hack attack was executed have been released by Target, the FBI or other agencies investigating the breach, it is likely that the processing machines themselves were compromised. Target claims that the hack was sophisticated, but on the technical side, once hackers found a way into the credit card processing machines, probably via remote entry from servers somewhere in Eastern Europe or Russia, the theft of credit card data itself would have been fairly straight forward by using scripts or applications that simply capture the data and send it off to servers owned by the hackers.

This was probably one of the largest credit card thefts in history, though it is not at all surprising. Two years ago we noted that cyber attacks would soon be targeting America’s e-commerce systems and just a few months ago it was noted that rogue terrorist groups were specifically working on sabotage operation to bring down the U.S. economy. While this latest attack on Target stores and their customers fell far short of crashing our economy or financial system, it proves, as did recent breaches of Pentagon military networks, that even the most highly secured systems in the world can be compromised.

Furthermore, what this attack highlights is that with the right type of “event” the economy and financial system of the United States can be shut down… almost instantly.

If you are a JP Morgan Chase banking customer and happened to use your debit card at Target stores between November 27th and December 15th, then you got a first-hand taste of what a shutdown of the banking system might feel like and how fast in can happen.

It was done with the push of a button and impacted some two million holiday shoppers:

JPMorgan Chase has notified card holders impacted by the Target breach that their cards will be restricted to $100 ATM cash withdrawals and $300 card purchases until replacement cards can be issued. The new limits impact nearly 2 million debit card accounts, but not credit card holders.

Chase bank made no announcement to their customers of the coming restrictions just days before Christmas. They simply obtained a list of the potentially compromised cards, uploaded them into their system, and with the flick of a finger shut down electronic access to customers’ funds. Whether Chase’s actions were a bad business move is not necessarily at issue, though it was probably quite inconvenient for those affected.

What is at issue is what many in alternative media have been warning about for some time – that the entire financial system of the United States can be shut down within a matter of minutes should the right set of events be realized.

Most Americans don’t believe it can happen. Likewise, most people didn’t think that American domestic security agencies could shut down our borders and put transportation across the country on lock-down within a few hours – until it happened on September 11, 2001.

Former national security coordinator Richard Clarke has warned that America’s cyber infrastructure is so fragile that it could literally be brought down by a coordinated cyber attack in a matter of 15 minutes. It sounds absurd to suggest that our country could potentially be crippled that quickly, until you realize that China, Russia, and Iran have long been mapping our entire utility, commerce and communications grids, all of which would be the first targets in any large-scale confrontation.

Because cyber space is now considered a national asset, the President of the United States has the authority to completely shut down the internet (and all of the components attached to it) with what experts call a “kill switch.” If this executive action is ever implemented the President would need very little justification to shut it all down – the financial system, commerce systems, and all personal web surfing – for a period of up to four months, and then indefinitely if he can provide a justifiable reason to Congress.

We live in a world that is, for those paying attention, completely out of our control. Our entire way of life could change overnight for any number of reasons.

A war with a foreign power, a rogue terrorist attack, or a false flag event could all be a trigger event for something so debilitating that it would cause pandemonium from coast to coast.

Former Department of Homeland Security head Janet Napolitano recently said that a massive and serious attack on the homeland is imminent. It makes no difference why it happens. Only that it does.

 

Start now to make sure you are staying prepared.

 

Via: shtfplan

Eyewitness to Hitler Warns: “Keep Your Guns and Buy More Guns”

When Katie Worthman was a little girl in Austria, she witnessed firsthand Adolph Hitler’s rise to power and the Soviet communist occupation that followed.  She also witnessed, for decades, the distortions of the media when it came to the reporting of the events.

From her eyewitness perspective, Worthman said that the whole thing didn’t happen overnight, in a brutal attack, like the media portrays it, but rather, it evolved into a dictatorship gradually, over a period of a few years.  Hitler didn’t come across as someone evil, to be feared, initially.  “In the beginning, Hitler didn’t look like, or talk like a monster at all. He talked like an American politician.”

Here are some things that occurred in Austria, according to Worthman, that just might look familiar to Americans:

  • Hitler was elected with 98% of the vote.
  • Hitler destroyed the existing medical system when he brought a national healthcare plan into being.
  • First, people were forced to register their guns to cut down on crime.
  • Then they were forced to turn them in or risk capital punishment for keeping them.

Worthman’s eyewitness account is eerily reminiscent of what we can see going on in the United States today.

“In 1938, the media reported that Hitler rode into Austria with tanks and guns and took us over. Not true at all,” she says. “The Austrian people elected Hitler by 98% of the vote by means of the ballot box. Now you might ask how could a Christian nation… elect a monster like Hitler. The truth is at the beginning Hitler didn’t look like or talk like a monster at all. He talked like an American politician.<

“We also had gun registration. All the Austrian people… had guns. But the government said, ‘the guns are very dangerous. Children are playing with guns. Hunting accidents happen and we really have to have total controlled safety. And we had criminals again. And the only way that we can trace the criminal was by the serial number of the gun.’

“So we dutifully went to the police station and we registered our guns. Not long after they said, ‘No, it didn’t help. The only way that we won’t have accidents and crimes [is] you bring the guns to the police station and then we don’t have any crimes anymore and any accidents. And if you don’t do that: capital punishment.’

“So that’s what we did. So dictatorship didn’t happen overnight. It took five years. Gradually, little by little to escalate up to a dictatorship.

“When the people fear the government, that’s tyranny. But when the government fears the people… that’s liberty. Keep your guns. Keep your guns and buy more guns.”

Now 84, Katie Worthman is warning America, her adopted country, in the hopes that history does not repeat itself. Watch her powerful presentation below.  If you don’t want to go buy more ammo after that, then you aren’t paying attention.

 

 

From The Daily Sheeple – Written by Kimberly Paxton

 

Start now to make sure you are staying prepared.

 

Via: thesurvivalistblog

Survival strategies for middle-aged & single preppers

This is a guest post by Dare T.

First of all, not every survival scenario is going to fit everyone’s needs. There is no “one size fits all” strategy. Much depends on your age, if you are raising a family, your occupation, where you work and your income. Being single means I don’t have immediate help as I grow older; no second income, no helpmate, no children. All of my siblings and close relatives live 1800+ miles away. Although I have long since settled my heart on the fact that the Lord called me to be single, it seems to me that you married preppers have it a little easier.

Being a single middle-aged gal, my needs are different from other preppers. I have been avidly preparing since 2007, but I have always been fascinated by stories my family elders told about how they lived and made do during the Great Depression. Both my Father’s and Mother’s parents were hard-working frugal folks who recycled and re-purposed everything, grew survival gardens and kept a cow (for daily milk), chickens (for eggs and the occasional meat) and would raise at least one pig a year for the ham.

I have incorporated much of the frugality of my elders, and adapted it to my urban surroundings for most of my life. I was never a fashion-plate and did most of my shopping at resale stores. I’m not into jewelry, or fancy purses or perfumes. I like plain soap, bluejeans and sensible shoes. Having been a Girl Scout in the 1960′s, I became familiar with many survival skills, such as identifying animal tracks, fishing, camping and knitting. However, I was not that into sewing and homemaking classes in high school, so I had to acquire those skills along the way.

Since beginning my preps in earnest, I have acquired a Berkey water filter with back-up filter candles, have stockpiled a month’s worth of water, bought a shotgun with 100 rounds of ammo (thus far) and learned to shoot it, purchased several other boxes of ammo in .22, 9mm, and .38 calibers for barter, various other tools and resources including 3 months of food storage, camping equipment, edged weapons, crossbow and arrows, slingshot with ammo, several books on survival topics, sprouting seeds and sprouters, heirloom garden seeds, knitting looms and yarn, sewing notions stockpile, first aid kit stockpile, set up a “store” for non-food items I use frequently and began stockpiling these items such as toothpaste, toothbrushes, deodorant, aluminum foil, toilet paper, paper towels, matches, paper plates, plastic cups and utensils, dog food and pet first aid. I have a bug out bag ready to go if I ever need to leave home and already know my destination. Most of the basics are now covered, which allows me to concentrate on acquiring barter goods and stockpiling more ammunition for my firearms and food and water.

During my working life I have lived in rented apartments in big cities or close-in suburbs of big cities. Long about 2007 I could see the handwriting on the wall and decided I needed to re-position myself in order to have a better retirement and survive an economic collapse. As the economy worsened, and our politicians increased our woes, I decided I had to make some changes and fast, if I was going to survive what’s coming.

The first step was to devise my strategy. I took a look at every aspect of my current life, and what may lie ahead in my retirement.

Regarding my employment and work: I reasoned I needed to stop working for others and create a job I could take with me wherever I live. If I could work from my home, that would be ideal.

Housing:

Since I am near 60 years old, I knew I had to find a safe place to shelter in place. Sheltering in place is the best strategy for me as I am not able to live off the land – at least not for very long.

I also needed to own a home with a yard where I could garden. Apartment managers in the complexes where I rented were not too keen on gardening and had way too many rules about what tenants could and could not do. If you need to rent, and have property management that allows and encourages gardening, you are very fortunate!

Health:

As I grow older I know my health will decline, despite my best efforts taking care of myself. So it became imperative to find a location that had access to good doctors, and a good hospital or clinic.

Location:

Having been raised in a small town in Indiana, I wanted to return to a small town, if one could be found that met my needs. I wanted to live away from the “line of drift” of the inevitable refugees after the collapse, in a low population area, but in a town that had all the amenities I needed for quality of life issues. I wanted to live in a town with a really great library, a Senior Center, and local cultural events. Additionally, it must be near a body of water, have a gun club, be in a politically conservative area/county and have several wonderful churches. I was going to relocate for the last time and I wanted to get it right.

Once I had my needs spelled out, my first priority was to transition into working from home.

As it happens, I work in telephone sales and business development. I decided to find an employer who allowed me to work from home, setting appointments for their sales staff. I was able to find such an employer. However, as the economy worsened in 2008 and 2009, I noticed it was getting harder to meet the quotas my employer needed, so I decided to branch out and start my own business development business and continue to work from home.

This way, I could hire myself clients on a part-time or project basis, and work my own schedule. There are many business professionals who just hate setting appointments for sales, and are willing to pay someone to do this work. Many are quite realistic in their expectations regarding production, so this became ideal. In fact, it turned out to be wonderful, with the exception of steady pay from clients. I had to learn to run a business, pay my own taxes, fire some clients and hire new ones. and find my own inner resources to keep doing the work without direct accountability. Overall, transitioning to work from home was not as hard as I thought, so I was able to have a job I could take with me.

Next I needed to find the location to move to. Knowing that I wanted a smaller community, with amenities for Senior healthcare and like-minded people (with the additional needs for water sources, climate, length of growing season, etc.), and already living in the Pacific NW, I concentrated on looking at smaller cites and towns in the American Redoubt.

Using an Atlas and Google maps, plus several Internet tools such as:

Free Map Tools/Radius Around A Point on a Map (http://www.freemaptools.com/radius-around-point.htm). I used this tool to determine areas to look deeper for locations to move to, after plotting distances from targets. Example, if you want to be at least 160 miles away from a target city, select the target and enter 160 miles. Do this for every target you can identify in the region where you are looking. Anything that falls outside all the plotted targets is where you look for potential locations. Anywhere within or in overlapping plotted targets are to be avoided.

How Far is It? (http://www.infoplease.com/atlas/calculate-distance.html)

How Far Is It? Is a distance calculator to determine how far a distance is between 2 points “as the crow flies” or in a straight line. This is a good one to use if you are concerned about being downwind of radioactive fallout.

I eliminated any location too close to larger cities (population centers of 250,000+ population); too close to strategic targets of terrorism or war; areas prone to natural disasters of a certain frequency and level of mitigation; and far enough away from other targeted cities/areas to be able to survive. The result of this work helped me to narrow down my list to 3 towns in the Redoubt that met all my criteria.

Next, I took a look at what I could afford insofar as housing and what I could manage to do physically as I grew older. I knew I didn’t have enough money to buy rural land and a house, nor would I be able to handle the work involved in developing and maintaining a rural property. Having rented apartments my whole life, I decided to buy a manufactured home in a low-cost MH community and pay space rent.

I figured the cost of rent must be less than the mortgage and taxes I would pay if I bought a real property home, even as the rent for the mobile home space increases as time goes by. I also decided to concentrate on finding a home in an all-age park. I reasoned that the park setting itself would naturally lend itself to be it’s own community and the elderly living there would be able to make friends among the younger families. There would probably always be a teenager who would mow the lawn for me for a few bucks, and a few handymen who could do the odd jobs I would not be able to do around the house.

To narrow my search I used the Internet to locate family mobile home communities in my selected cities. My primary source of information was Mobile Home Village (http://www.mhvillage.com/). This is an aggregate website that lists all of the MH communities all over the country. The search tool allows you to select for all-age/family parks or age-restricted parks, and those that allow pets, etc. Many listings give current space rents as well. This tool was invaluable.

I made a list of all suitable parks in each three locations, then looked deeper at several other important factors, such as how close water sources were to each location. Was there a source for water I could get to if need be, once my home stores of water run out? If so, how far would I have to walk, bicycle or drive to get to it? Is the area of the MH community prone to flooding?

This turned out to be the most problematic of the all my preparations because the “devil really is in the details.” Not every community turned out to be the best for all my needs. In fact, most were compromised in one or two major categories. And that’s a big lesson for each of us: there is no perfect place. Faced with this development I decided to try to find a town and a MH park that met my primary needs, while meeting most of my secondary needs. At that point a final search tool became very important. I used Google map set on Satellite View to look at wind direction.

Here’s what I did: Airports are set up with runways aimed in the prevailing wind direction, so aircraft during take offs can have a tail wind, and a head wind to help during landings. So I looked up the addresses of each target location’s airport to see which direction the wind generally comes from, keeping in mind that wind direction varies throughout the year. The best you can do with this research is see which direction the wind comes from most of the time. These littlest details can make all the difference. Once I saw which way the wind blew, I got a clearer picture of where I needed to be. If that target location was a nuke target, then I knew I needed to be either upwind of that target or far enough away to mitigate the fallout.

I finally found the town and the MH community within that town, that met all of my primary needs and most of my secondary ones. I ended up buying a very nice one-owner used manufactured home in a small 55+ park in the town, population just over 9,000.

The town is 165 miles away from a large city as the crow flies, with a mountain range in between. It is in an area of High Desert, with 280+ days of sunshine annually, and only 12 inches of rain per year. The town is in a conservative area (more registered Republicans and Independents than Democrats). While there is only 12 inches of rain annually in the region, the park I moved into is 2 ½ blocks away from a river. The river serves the region, and is a tributary of an even greater river.

Although the residents use city water indoors, the park itself has water rights to the river and allow residents to use river water for lawn and garden maintenance. The river water is actually pumped to each home with an outdoor spigot. Upsteam of the river are 2 large reservoirs, which are both easily accessible. There has never been a flood of this town because the creeks and irrigation channel systems were created which utilized and devised a way to minimize such a danger. It also helps that the river is a favorite of locale anglers, abounding with plenty of white fish and rainbow trout.

The town does not have a gun club (sigh), but area ranchers have no problem with using their own ranges. There is a gun club in a neighboring town just 8 miles from my house, and membership is quite inexpensive. While the town itself is a little over 9,000 in population, it is 33 miles away from a city of 80,000 and 17 miles away from a city of 25,000. At a higher elevation from each, the only real threat from population drift on foot would come from the smaller city nearby. In this tri-city location, my town has the reputation of being the most conservative of the three. I can attest to this, having made new friends who are like-minded and friendly. Churches are everywhere in this city, and it is a truly great place to raise a family.

Is it perfect? No. My yard is small, but I have a large deck and driveway, where I can do container gardening. I was lucky that the previous owner put in several fruit trees that produce, so I will have to add canning and possibly wine production as new skills to acquire. My living room windows face south, so I am thinking of putting in a solarium or garden windows on that side of the house, for year-round food production. Deer come into the park on a regular basis, which means they are plentiful in the surrounding foothills. During deer season you can hear shooting from the hunter’s guns echo around the area from a distance.

The town takes pride in its annual rodeos and there are several small ad shopper type newspapers which advertise butchers (for your deer kill) as well as gun/ammo stores, fly fishing outfitters and ranch stores. Trucks outnumber cars here. Crime is low and mostly non-violent. There are many ads for handymen looking for odd jobs.

The MH park has monthly meetings for residents in the Community Center. Although it is a 55+ park and age-restricted, younger folks are allowed to live there as long as they are caretakers for a resident. Dogs are allowed and my chihuahua has made many new dog friends. The county recently built a new library just 2 blocks away, with a small park and nature walk along the river. Information plaques dot the path at intervals, calling attention to the local flora and fauna, including tracks of the critters that live near and along the river.

Financially, my expenses have been cut in half with my total living expenses topping out under $1000 a month. My income has only taken a small drop, but that has given me the opportunity to be more selective in my choice of clients and projects, and freeing up more of my time to pursue learning new skills and beef up my preps.

There is a local hospital and several hearing, vision and veterinary clinics in town. A larger hospital is nearby in the town of 25,000, and a regional Medical Center in the city of 80,000. I don’t miss the endless malls, or the crime and pollution at all. I have more sunshine and friendlier people and much less stress in my life now, after making the move 6 months ago.

As time goes on, I am making a point of learning about the local medicinal and edible plants, learning which varieties of garden vegetables grow best in the area, and making more new friends to form my “core trusted group” of people if TEOTWAWKI happens. I may volunteer to help with the County Sheriff’s office, the library and take a Red Cross training or two.

For those of you who are single and need to move away from the cities, my advice is to find a way to take a job with you first. If you are interested in learning more about what I do for a living, I can advise you on ways to cheaply set up your home office, and how to find clients. Just contact me at my email address: [email protected]

 

Start now to make sure you are staying prepared.

 

Via: thesurvivalistblog

Owning a Water Filter Could Save Your Life When TSHTF

If you study the Survival Rule of Three’s you’ll see that water is near the top of the list.  As human beings it’s one of those elements we simply can’t live without.

It’s simple – if you don’t have water you will die.

But let’s say you do have water, but it’s dirty, impure, loaded with germs, or all the above.  After the super typhoon that just wrecked the Philippines I noticed in many of the stories that what people needed was food and water.  Flooding had contaminated all the water and lack of electricity made it nearly impossible to get water.

If you’re smart and you have the resources you can filter it with a bandana or some other make-shift rig and then boil it, which takes time and energy, or you can filter it for safe, quick access to that most needed item for survival:  clean water.

Enter the water filter.  The better water filters will even filter out germs and other small particles making just about any water safe to drink.

Let’s use the Berkey water filter as an example.  I have a Royal Berkey and this thing is awesome.  If there’s ever a disaster in my area that makes it impossible to get water from my well there’s a pond right across the street where I can get some.  Most times you’d turn your nose up at the idea of drinking pond water, but all I’ve got to do is walk across the street and fill up my five gallon bucket, bring it back to the house and dump it into my water filter.  The filter does its thing and voila!  Clean drinking water for my wife, two kids, and myself.  It doesn’t get sweeter than that.

Here’s a little blurb about that particular filter:

The Royal Berkey is a powerful system that purifies both treated water and untreated raw water from such sources as remote lakes, streams, stagnant ponds and water supplies in foreign countries, where regulations may be substandard at best.  Perfect for outdoor activities and a must in hostile environments where electricity, water pressure or treated water may not be available.

The Royal Berkey® system removes pathogenic bacteria, cysts and parasites entirely and extracts harmful chemicals such as herbicides, pesticides, VOCs, organic solvents, radon 222 and trihalomethanes.  It also reduces nitrates, nitrites and unhealthy minerals such as lead and mercury. This system is so powerful it can remove red food coloring from water without removing the beneficial minerals your body needs. Virtually no other system can duplicate this performance.

Constructed of highly polished 304 stainless steel, the system comes complete with two purification elements and utilizes the latest technological advances. This system has a storage capacity of about 3.25 gallons (12.3 liters) and when in use it stands 23″ in height with a diameter of 9.5″. The upper chamber nests within the lower chamber for transport and stands only 15.25″ in height.

Configured with two Black Berkey® purification elements the system will purify up to 4 Gallons (15.1 liters) per hour*. This system can be expanded to use four purification elements and is capable of purifying up to 8 Gallons (30.3 liters) per hour*.

It doesn’t have to be a Royal Berkey of course.  They have many other types of filters such as the Sports Bottle Water Filter, which I am going to order soon.

These filters do cost a little more; however, they are superior products.  And not only do they function wonderfully they are also damned attractive.  Most of the other water filters are no frills jobs and that’s fine, they do what they are designed to do, but the Berkey filters look nice sitting on your counter top.

I’ve taken mine in my camper when I wasn’t sure about the water coming out of the faucet or if there was no running water and it’s been a life saver.  Simply fill it up and it just works.

Do you remember the story about that town near Boston a few years back where some constructions guys broke a water main and it they put a “boil water” alert into effect?  People went crazy!  They mobbed stores looking for bottled water and there were fights over what was left.  And they still had electricity!  All they had to do was boil the freakin’ water and it would have been fine.

Imagine what would have happened if they didn’t have electricity?  Or water stopped running altogether and all they had access to was river and lake water?  Think there might have been a few riots over what water was left in the stores?

Do yourselves a favor and pick one of these filters up before the next big catastrophe or even the “big one” that knocks us off the map for awhile comes along.

 

Start now to make sure you are staying prepared.

 

Via: shtfblog