Monthly Archives: March 2014

To Start A Food Storage Program

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How To Change Your Thoughts And Actions

To Start A Food Storage Program

 

Prepping is a way of life and to start prepping you need to change the way you think and your actions. It does not need to be a 180 degree change at first but can grow as you start the process.  Actually when you change your thoughts and actions on prepping you will start saving money on the things that you purchase.  On Wednesdays the big chain grocery stores publish their ads for the week. You can have the grocery stores close to you send you their ads by email or you can purchase the newspaper on that day to find out what they have on sale for the week. The grocery stores’ ads go from Wednesday through Tuesday typically.  Wal-Mart, Kmart, Dollar Tree, and some others publish their ads and they start on Sunday. This information you need to place on your calendar so that you don’t show up on the day that the new ads come out and want to purchase something from the last week’s ad.

 

Next you need to plan. Take the ads and go through and compare them with what groceries that you need to purchase for the week. Actually it does not take as long as some think and the time gets shorter the more you use the system. Some people only want to purchase groceries once a month; however, you will end up saving more money and growing your food storage for the amount that you spend if you shop by your ads each week.  Instead of planning your meals and then shop accordingly, change that around and whatever is on sale, plan your meals around the ads. If roast is on sale, plan to have that once or twice this week. If ham is on sale, plan to have ham a couple of times that week. The same with veggies and fruit, whatever is fresh and on sale plan to have that this week.

 

After you look at your ads if you save coupons, check them next to see if anything that is on sale you also have a coupon for it. This is when you really see the savings. There are many coupon sites online that you can print off the coupons and use. One place is www.refdesk.com/coupons.html. Or if you get the paper and magazines you can find coupons in these.  ‘All You’ is a good magazine that will print on the cover how much money their coupons are worth in each copy.  Also don’t forget Dollar Tree, they have some name brand food for less and some accept coupons. You may want to check with the store manager before you are expecting to use coupons in their store. Most stores will have coupon uses on their webpage.

 

After you have compared prices and coupons on the different stores, then you are ready to go shopping. When something is on sale and especially if you have extra coupons try to purchase more than 1 of the item. If you plan your meals around what is on sale then you will have more money to spend and get more for your money.  We have had times where the amount we have saved at a store is more than the amount that we spent.  And if you do your planning with a friend it is great fun to compare how much you save compared to the other.  It will encourage each of you to get more for your money.  Also if you purchase food at either Safeway or King Soopers [and there may be more stores] you can get money off your gas purchase when you purchase a certain amount of food in their store each month. It is worth the time that you put into the work.

 

One week we had coupons for Campbell’s chunky soups. When we went to the store we got 12 cans because we had a dozen coupons. The grand total for that dozen cans of soup was $0.14—that is correct fourteen cents! PLUS the store gave use 12 more coupons! We had a meeting at church that night and took our sack of soups in and set them up on a table. Of course everyone was interested as to why we had that display set up….  Jaws hit the floor when we shared the story with them. The short of it is that we ended up spending close to $3.00 that week on the Campbell’s chunky soups, which sure did taste GREAT the next several months until the sale cycle came around again.

www.PrepareSurviveThrive.US

get others into survival

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How My Husband Got Me Interested in Prepping

Before I met my husband I was not a prepper.  Growing up we did have a garden each year and Dad hunted and we fished and put that up in a freezer, but that was to save on groceries.

I remember my Mother being afraid of canning because a pressure canner once blew up in her home as a child –in the1930s. We also went camping but that was just a hobby not preparing for anything that was ever said. My Dad had grown up very poor and this was what he could do to save money.  The evenings that we sat outside in the front yard and shelled peas and lima beans and snapped green beans to put in the freezer are now fond memories.

On the other hand maybe that was a part of prepping that was just normally done back in the 60’s when I was growing up. However, after my husband and I got married, and it did take years, but he finally convinced me that prepping was a way of life, and oh how that way of life has blessed our family time and time again. There have been many times that one or the other of us got sick or hurt or as a family we moved and because we had food storage, we did not have to worry about being hungry.

Our daughter moved away from home and got married we would take her food from the storage at least every month.  When she moved back into town she said she really missed the food storage because there were times when she went hungry because they did not have enough money.

I’ve talked to many people that said they did not have enough room for food storage and I told them if it was important enough to you, you would find the room.  Just from a money standpoint food storage makes sense.  You buy food when it is on sale for the times it is not on sale.  It is not that you have wheat, honey, salt and powdered milk in bulk in the basement and you say I have my food storage. Food storage is all of the food you have in your home, even what you are eating on at the time. It is going to Farmer’s Markets and buying in quantity when food is in season and in bulk and putting it up for a rainy day.  I say the squirrel is “coming out” in me, it’s a natural thing to do.

When most people used to live on a farm they put food up when it was time for harvest.  During the fall the stores will put baking supplies on sale, you just purchase enough to last you till the next fall when it goes on sale again.

The final straw was when my husband asked me what I would do if I had to take the mark of the beast or whatever the government would hold over you, or not be able to feed our children. How could I look our children in the eyes and tell them we do not have any food.  We provide for our children in every way we can, if we hear of food shortages all over the world and not have food storage already put aside, what are we telling our children?

The way I look at it is we have food storage FOR our children more so than for ourselves. And that goes for the rest of prepping; their safety, heat, lights, health, clothes, hygiene, education, spiritual health and anything else that they would need.

Prepping is not a quick fix, but a way of life that we are thinking about what to do next, to provide for our children.  And with us it has not only provided for our children but now for our grandchildren and are they not worth everything we can do?

Stroke FAST

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We will not be making a habit of posting news articles… HOWEVER this story is important to share… In today’s world this information will aid in your survival.  RBO

http://news.yahoo.com/kids-learn-stroke-signs-class-imitation-122209086.html

Kids learn stroke signs in class through imitation

                       

By JIM FITZGERALD 20 hours ago

 

NEW YORK (AP) — Andrea Esteban tried to smile with half her face, crossing her eyes in the process, and her third-grade classmates giggled. Matthew Velez struggled to speak, “Luh, luh, uh, gronk,” and the kids erupted in laughter.

But the funny faces, the gibberish and some arm flapping were all part of a serious lesson to help kids learn the telltale signs of a stroke by imitating them. The idea is to enlist children, particularly those who may live with older relatives, as an army of eyes to help recognize the warning signs, get help for victims more quickly and hopefully save lives.

“If my mom has a stroke, I’ll know what to do,” said 10-year-old Madison Montes. “Run to the phone and call 911.”

The experimental health education program at MontefioreMedicalCenter in the Bronx is aimed at the most crucial factor when it comes to a stroke: time.

Each year, about 795,000 Americans have a stroke and about 130,000 die. Some are caused by bleeding in the brain, but the vast majority is caused by a clot that blocks blood flow, starving brain cells. The drug TPA can dissolve those clots and reduce disability but only if it’s given within three to four hours of the first symptoms, and the sooner the better. Yet only about 5 percent of patients receive it, in part because many stroke sufferers don’t get to the hospital in time for testing to tell if they’re a candidate.

The early warning signs include a droopy side of the face, slurred or strange speech, and the inability to keep arms raised.

In this Feb. 25, 2014 photo, third-graders, from left, Hunter Thomas, Matthew Velez, Sebastian Mende …

“There’s a pretty good chance some children might witness a parent or a grandparent having a stroke,” said Jim Baranski, CEO of the National Stroke Association. “So if they’re armed with the signs and symptoms, they could likely save a life.”

Montefiore’s program, one of a handful tried across the country, has been used since 2012 with private schools in its neighborhood, where children are often in a grandparent’s care because parents are absent or both working. The goal is to study the results and, if successful, replicate the program across the country.

“The kids get a kick out of it because they get to do a little acting,” said Dr. Robert Glover, a neurologist who helped develop the program. “But when they’re done, they know about stroke and they can teach their families.”

Dr. Kathryn Kirchoff-Torres, who led the class from St. Ann’s School in the Bronx, said the kids are already “little message machines” bringing home from school what they learn about the benefits of exercise, not smoking and eating well.

At the start of the stroke class last month, in a first-floor room at the hospital, the doctor asked, “Who knows what a stroke is?”

In this Feb. 25, 2014 photo, pencil erasers in the shape of the human brain lie on a table at Montef …

“A heart attack?” one child offered.

“Well, we like to call it a brain attack,” Kirchoff-Torres said. “It’s a problem with the brain.” She then taught the children to use the word “FAST” as a memory device. With cartoons and music bringing the point home, they learned “F” is for face, “A” is for arms, “S” is for speech and “T” is for time.

After the play-acting and the multimedia show, the doctor invited questions from the children.

“How do you catch a stroke?” one boy asked. The doctor assured him that strokes are not contagious but can be caused by “high blood pressure, smoking cigarettes, junk food.”

“What if we don’t have a phone?” a girl asked. Kirchoff suggested asking a neighbor or running to a storefront.

“What if you live in the desert?” was the follow-up question, to which Kirchoff smiled and said, “It’s a good thing you live in the Bronx.”

After the class, the children were presented with pens labeled “FAST” and with pencil erasers in the shape of human brains, which were very popular.

One parent in attendance, Jason Sawtelle, said he felt the lesson “plants the seed”

“Maybe not every 8-year-old is capable of this,” he said, “but some certainly are.”

Similar programs have been tried elsewhere. At HarlemHospital in Manhattan, Dr. Olajide Williams uses hip-hop music to engage New York City fourth- through sixth-graders in three hours a year of stroke education.

“Beyond sixth grade, the kids become a little too cool,” Williams said. But with the younger kids, “we’ve shown that these children can learn basic stroke pathology.” He said at least two children have been credited with helping to save lives.

A similar stroke education study in the Corpus Christi, Texas, public schools used Tejano music. It was headed by Dr. Lewis Morgenstern, director of the stroke program at the University of Michigan Medical School.

The 2007 study found that the youngsters responded well.

“The data was highly positive in terms of knowledge about stroke and their intention to call 911,” Morgenstern said. “The earlier we can make people aware of stroke and that it’s arguably the most treatable of all catastrophic conditions, the better off we will be.”

___

AP Medical Writer Lauran Neergaard contributed to this report.

First Aid – Bleeding

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If there are any major leaks you will have to take steps to control the bleeding. Ideally you will have ‘rubber’ gloves on for this.

 

Typically most bleeding can be slowed down or stopped with [in this order] direct pressure on the wound. Use the cleanest cloth available to cover the wound and apply pressure for at least 5 full minutes by the clock. The cloth will provide a matrix for the blood to clot into. After the 5 minutes reduce the pressure without disturbing the cloth [dressing], if the leaking does not resume you may tie [bandage] the dressing in place. If it starts bleeding again reapply pressure and elevate the wound above heart level. Most of the time I go ahead and do both from the start as it saves time and blood. Over 90% of all bleeding can be controlled this way. Hopefully EMS will arrive while you are doing this.  A tourniquet is a last ditch effort at this level to save a life and may result in losing the limb, but that is better than dying.

Many other injuries respond well to

 

RICE

  • Rest,
  • Ice,
  • Compression and
  • Elevation

 

Rest means to reduce how much and how ‘hard’ you use the affected body part. An example of this would be staying off of a sprained ankle instead of running a marathon.

 

Ice has the effect of constricting blood vessels in the affected area which will decrease bleeding and swelling, which in turn will lessen the pain levels and damage.

 

Compression also lessens the amount of blood and extra cellular fluid in the area. Compression will force much of the fluid away from the damaged area kinda like wringing water out of a towel.

 

Elevation slows bleeding and helps fluid in the tissue to migrate back into healthier tissue via gravity.

A time for travel the summer project

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A Time For Travel ~ The Christmas Project by Czaplewski, Janice (Oct 25, 2013)

 

A Time for Travel ~ The Christmas Project is about four cousins who invent a time travel machine over Christmas vacation. They set the time for 200 years in the past and set the location for the MarbleArchCaves in Northern Ireland. That is not where they end up!

Follow Brooklyn, Caleb, Genevieve, and Kennedy as they explore the castles and caves of ancient Ireland on their grand adventures. What will they do once they get there and their time travel machine doesn’t work? Will they find the leprechauns, dragons, fairies and unicorns they are looking for? Will they get home?

 

Watch for the second book in the series, A Time For Travel ~ The Summer Project coming soon.

 

A Time For Travel ~ The Summer Project is the second book in the series. Go along with Kennedy, Brooklyn, Genevieve, and Caleb on another grand time travel adventure into the past.

They travel to Northern Ireland to the year 1570. They discover smugglers stealing gold that the leprechauns have hidden in a cave. They need help to capture them but are pirates really the best choice to go to for help?

The chase leads them from Northern Ireland to the Republic of Ireland to England to Scotland and back again.

Will they catch the smugglers? Will they be able to return the gold? What happens after the time machine crashes?

see also http://www.preparesurvivethrive.us/ready-or-not/

Grow your garden in pots

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Grow your garden in pots

 
We live in a harsh environment to grow gardens.  The soil is a clay consistency and does not have many nutrients for growing plants.  So, we grow most of our food in pots.  We are also the hail capital of the United States so our plants get damaged right from the start. We have been growing food in pots for years now and winter some of our plants over inside.  We have kept basil and pepper plants going for 5 years. And we have moved quite often so we just empty the pots out and take them with us, they stack nicely.  Each year we try and purchase more pots to keep adding to what we have and have started purchasing the little dollies that have wheels on them for the larger pots that are too heavy to move when full.  As we get older the pots are nicer to work with than getting down on the ground when there is a possibility that we have a difficult time getting up.  We have changed out the soil some and others we add kitchen waste to and that helps give the soil more nutrients. It is also a good idea if you find worms put them into your pots so they can take care of breaking down the kitchen waste.
 
To start the seeds we use cardboard egg containers and starter soil mix water well and cover them with saran wrap and place in a dark place. When the seeds start sprouting then we uncover them and put by the window or put a grow light over them. This way we can baby them until they get larger. When the plants get large enough we transfer them to the larger pots. Then as the days get warmer we can place them outside during the day and bring them in at night. And when we get hail we can bring them in also or at least cover them. You can also plant new seeds during the winter months and keep the plants either in the window so they get light or have a grow light on them.
 
Some veggie plants are not as pretty as flowers, however, they will feel just as pretty when you start getting food off of them. Although the chive, radish, okra, parsnip, rhubarb and Black Eyed Peas to name a few that also have pretty flowers.  Also you can plant flowers in with the veggie plants. Some varieties of flowers are also good to eat in salads such as Nasturtiums, day lilies and carnations. Also one of my favorite ways of planting in pots is to put a tomato or pepper plant in the middle of a large pot and then plant herbs around it.
 
If you plant heirloom seeds then make sure at the end of the season that you let some of each go to seed so you have seeds for next year.  Then some of the plants you can winter over indoors and they will continue to provide food. The rest of the pots you can either cover during the winter or just put them out of your way. Speaking of heirloom seeds they are the ones you should be using because you can save the seeds and they will produce the exact same plant. With the non-heirloom seeds you may get a totally different plant and veggie. So, it will be better if you start using the heirloom seeds and get use to saving your seeds for the next year. This will also cut the cost of gardening when you do not have to pay for seeds year after year.

surviving rising costs

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Manager’s Guide to Cost Reduction by Czaplewski, Janice (Feb 5, 2014)

 

This book is for managers to get the overview and understand the process. Order the full sized, full color companion workbook for the people that will be doing the projects.

If you have an questions or comments, feel free to contact Janice Czaplewski at Janice@entire360.com.

 

http://www.preparesurvivethrive.us/a-time-for-travel-the-christmas-project/

earning a living- surviving divorce

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This is part of our Earning a living series.

 

Janice’s next book is out. Find it on Amazon.

 

 

                       

 

And Then There Was One: A funny guide to surviving divorce by Czaplewski, Janice (Feb 5, 2014)


If you are wondering, “What in the world do I do now?” “How do I find time for myself” “Do the tears ever stop?” “What do you mean tomorrow? I can’t even hold onto today!” this book will help you. If your self-esteem, credit, morale, and sanity have taken a hit and your head is reeling, it helps to know there are other people out there that have been through what you are going through and they have survived. Let them light the candle that holds the darkness at bay. Let them lead you by the hand and pull you out of the black waters of despair. When you want to cry, let them help you find the humor in the absurdity that your life has become so you can’t help but laugh. Join me as I introduce you to some wonderful people who will all help you to understand what is happening and figure out ways to turn your life into what you want it to be.

http://www.preparesurvivethrive.us/a-time-for-travel-the-christmas-project/

Earning a living – book

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A new and practical book from one of my favorite authors.

 

Cost Containment Workbook: Complete Guide to Material Cost Reduction and Containment by Czaplewski, Janice (Feb 4, 2014)

 

As any business owner or CEO knows, manufacturing costs are constantly rising and you have to fight the battle every day to guard your profit margin.

If you are using a Catapult to fight rising costs and your competition is using a Howitzer, you need to read this book.

In this economy, if ever there was a time to use a howitzer to attack the castle where the profits are stored, this is it. Well, maybe it’s not quite that serious, but you certainly can’t sit back and just hope it gets better. The only way it will get better is if you are proactive, and the sooner you start the more impact you can have.

This book will help you evaluate your situation to see if you need to do a cost reduction project, help you choose the project, walk you through the steps of a project, and even take it to the next level with cost containment. After you have done the work to reduce the costs, you want to make sure they don’t creep up on you after the project is complete.

There are some really good tips to make the process easier and at the end of the book there are even “Excel Hints” to help you with the spreadsheets.

Just remember that if you always do what you always did, you will always get what you always got. Are you ready to do something different? If so, try these proven methods – today!


There are two books in this set. One is for the managers and [this] one is a full color workbook for the people who will be doing the cost reduction projects.

 

http://www.preparesurvivethrive.us/a-time-for-travel-the-christmas-project/

GUMBO chot

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GUMBO – Chicken, ham, okra & Tasso [sausage]

 

Ingredients;

1/3 to ½ cup flour and oil

1 can each of chicken and beef broth

Creole seasoning – garlic – salt & pepper to taste.

Tabasco sauce – jalapeno peppers

Celery, green pepper, onion.

Chicken, NATHAN”S smoked sausage, cooked ham, okra.

Add flour and oil to 2 -3 gallon stock pot. Heat on medium until browned. Add all broths and stir well.  Slice and dice all ingredients. Add seasonings garlic, tobacco, jalapeno to pot. Stir, add veggies. Stir, add meats.

Simmer until veggies are tender stirring as needed.

You of course have noticed that for the most part actual amounts have not been listed as traditional gumbo was basically just whatever you have on hand when you are cleaning out the frig. I happen to like it on the second day better than on the first – and I love it the first day. ;]

Serve with cooked rice. A variant is to serve it over steamed wheat grains. Good side dishes for this include corn bread with real butter and greens.

 

Of course the cornbread HAS to be cooked in cast iron.