Archive for the ‘general’ Category
Goal Setting for Survivalist
January 16th, 2012
Found this post today over at TEOTWAWKI, and I had to repost, couldn’t resist. Good solid advice. Now off to my goal list for 2012.
http://teotwawkiblog.blogspot.com/2011/01/goal-setting-for-survivalists.html
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Is Your Laundry Killing You?
January 13th, 2012
The larger your family, the more laundry you’ll have building up by the end of the week. Cleaning the laundry can be a time consuming process. The more you have the longer it takes. You can reduce your laundry loads with some of the following tips.
Wear clothes more than once before washing. Beyond clothes that are visibly soiled or undergarments, hang your clothes up at the end of a day of wear them to keep them nice and wear them again.
Reduce your clothing “collection”. Or at least reduce what you wear each week. This may be a multiple vector issue for some. I personally do not care if I am seen wearing the same short twice in a week. Some feel this is a social no-no. To those I say this… I understand and I get it. But consider the clothing you will be wearing in a power out, survival situation. The mindset is different, but should it be? When we are forced to survive, our values change. So I ask you to consider that here.
Hang clothes out to dry. If you are using a dryer, you may want to invest in a drying rack. These racks can hold a decent amount of laundry and your clothes can dry over the course of a day instead of drying in the electric or gas dryer. I generally hang our towels and light clothes on the rack in the summer. Since we run a dehumidifier in the summer, the clothes dry in about 8 hours. You can dry your clothes on a rack 3/4 of the way and tumble dry for the last part, to fluff them up.
Reuse towels. Use your towels at least twice. Hang them up over the shower curtain rod or the towel rod to let them dry over the course of the day. After the second use, then wash them. Also using small towels to dry off will increase the amount of towels that you can fit in your load. If each regular sized towel you had were cut in half, and that smaller towel was used twice instead of once you would get 4x the usage from the same material you are using now.
Roll your own. You could make your own laundry detergent or use vinegar in place of fabric softener. This will certainly save money and reduce the amount of chemicals that you are putting on your body and into the environment. And vinegar only smells bad when it is wet. So if your clothes dry completely, you will not smell it on your clothes.
There you have it, now get moving toward laundry freedom.
Altoid Tin Kits
January 11th, 2012
I admit that since I discovered the usefulness of Altoid Tins, I’ve become a collector of the snazzy little boxes. In fact I think I buy the mints in bulk just for the tins after I’m done. These tins are very, very useful for geeks, preppers, and common man alike. For Christmas I gave some female family members tins with some essential items in them such as an LED light, small Swiss Army knife, nail clippers, nail file, band-aids, safety pins, scrap paper, a gift card for the local coffee shop and a mini carabiner. There was still room left in that tin, but I couldn’t think of anything else they could add at the time. Read the rest of this entry »Free Education with LHU
January 11th, 2012
Lifehacker is now offering what it calls Lifehacker University. And while it seems to be nothing more than their collection of already available free online courses (Open University), it’s still an offering that is free nonetheless. You will probably have to sign up at each school that offers something, but that is a small price to pay for free education.
Three Mile Tour
December 26th, 2011
Too often people prepare by simply buying a lot of supplies in bulk and stuffing them in a box “just in case”. While some of the supplies need not be opened until needed, others may need to be opened and used frequently to understand their proper operation. For instance, in a bug out situation when one may need to leave on foot, would you be ready and prepared to do so in your current condition? Would you consider the weather and how much time would you need to dress appropriately in order to leave your home? What about navigation? Do you consider your destination and landmarks along the way? Today I decided to begin what I hope to be a series of training outings.
Ecolante’s Best of the Web’s best of…
December 23rd, 2011
Well it’s the end of the year and sites all over the net are doing their roundups of the best of 2011. So here is our best of… Ecolante’s Best of the Web’s best of….
Lifehacker’s – Best Explainers of 2011 – This collection is sweet, they had some really good articles this year that I would recommend to anyone.
HowToGeek’s – Best of 2011 – Here is one that has some practical geeky goodness. Everything from how to get free wifi to using a soldering iron. Makes me feel all warm and fuzzy.
Survival Mom – Top 10 Items for Beginning Preppers – Not exactly a best of 2011, but this article is a great starting point for any one who wants to be a little prepared for whatever life (or the planet) throws your way. Survival Mom also has a great article on the best state to tough out in a TEOTWAWKI situation.
Merry Christmas,
Ecolante
Reinventing Space
December 20th, 2011
After watching a video on Youtube last night I really started thinking about all of the “things” in my house that could go. Downsizing is one thing, but just getting rid of stuff that is seldom used can make a huge difference. I started to loosely clean the home office space. That turned into shedding papers, vacuuming, and organizing. The end result was a decent amount of clean floor space that was previously occupied by “stuff”. Read the rest of this entry »
Grid-Down Video Games
December 19th, 2011
Just a thought, I have a couple of old Nintendo DS units. These units hold a charge for a decent amount of time with occasional play. The challenge could be to see how long it takes to charge these units from being “dead” and measure the time and draw with a Kill-A-Watt. Other questions… can a DS be charged with solar power? Lots of possibilities. And the solution to keeping all the games you need in one place is a flash cartridge. With a flash cart, the possibilities are endless.
Tiny Homes
December 15th, 2011
As I’ve researched shelters and small homes, I have inevitably come across the tiny house movement. Tiny homes are just that, TINY! They are usually 300-700ft homes that are suitable for a small family or a single person. Looking at such a home on the outside, it seems to be too small. But upon further inspection they are actually really great homes that have everything that one needs to live. What’s even better is that they are so inexpensive overall, that one can be had for about $20k. An average home on today’s market cost at least 8 times that amount. So consider a small piece of land (an acre) that could support two or three of these homes. You could then support a couple of families. And what is more, is that they could all live and only have to split the taxes on the land.
What is Prepping Anyway?
December 7th, 2011
Sixty years ago or more, our grandparents and great grandparents would have never called “prepping” anything more than living. The lived in a time where getting a hamburger at 3AM, was only going to happen if you had ground beef in your icebox and were willing to fry it. They could not go out to eat at a moment’s notice and get cooked food. Instead they had food stored in their basements, on shelves in cans. Often they canned food themselves. Washing clothes in a tub was common and they used general soaps, borax and washing soda. Pre-made detergents were not the norm. Pre-processed foods were not available. Water still came from wells in some areas. Their homes were heated with oil or coal.
Today we have moved away from that way of life and we call it progression in technology. I will not list all of the ways our lives have changed because of technology, that is a whole other article. But suffice to say that prepping is more or less a movement back towards the way our grandparents lived. Read the rest of this entry »