Strawberry Coring Tip

52 Unique Techniques for Stocking Food for Prepper
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So simple, not many words are needed. As a matter of fact, when I first saw this Strawberry Coring tip I thought it was the most innovative thing I had seen in a long time, but I was disappointed when my normally uniformed wife, very matter of factly told me that “everyone knows this…” I didn’t know it, so I am sharing it…

Take a straw and a whole strawberry and push straw up through the bottom of the strawberry and the core pops right out.

If you wonder why I shared I a tip that “everyone already knew” its simple – while I hope that this website helps people learn how to become more self reliant as well as to be a place people can visit for answers to questions they have – it is more a documentary of my journey from a guy that read about things to become a guy that does things.  I did not know how to use a strawberry as a strawberry coring aid, so when I did learn I shared it.

This strawberry coring tip worked pretty good.  I use it whenever I have to make something with strawberries.  It worked perfect with my brandied strawberries.

PRN Episode #6 Self Reliance

52 Unique Techniques for Stocking Food for Prepper
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In this episode David talks self reliance.  Being able to take care of yourself is a vital concept to preppers.  But self reliance is not always easy.  We discuss:

  • You can wait until you have the perfect situation, or you can just get started
  • Urban Homesteading, and what food production systems David has at his suburban home
  • Essay I,Pencil and why nobody can be truly self-reliant, but everyone should try
  • DIY project for making, testing, and storing homemade vinegar
  • How David builds his prepping network

Once again, no one can be totally self-reliant because no single person can know or do everything.  Additionally even if you can do everything you sure can’t do it all at the same time.  Remember TANSTAFL there is no such thing as a free lunch.  You will have to bend a little and join or build a team if you want to be truly disaster resistant.

This is a problem for me, I am not the most social person.  But I try and so should you.

The show is scheduled for Monday at 10pm central time at this link.

If you cannot listen on Monday, you can always download the podcast for listening at your own leisure.

 

How to Swaddle a Fussy Newborn

 

How to Swaddle a Fussy Newborn
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Swaddling is the practice of wrapping infants in blankets to restrict their movement. This age old technique has been the subject of several modern studies, and these medical studies suggest that swaddling helps the babies sleep, and to remain asleep. Furthermore, since swaddling helps babies sleep on their backs, it helps lowers the risk of sudden infant death syndrome.

We have found that swaddling helps calm our newborn. While there are no conclusive studies that prove that swaddling is calming, I think it replicates conditions in the womb, and makes the baby feel comfortable.

We stopped swaddling after a couple months, as we saw the benefits lessen, and did not want to prevent our son from being able to develop mobility, however, our research indicated that swaddling older babies was fine, if kept to nap time.

So lets learn how to swaddle a fussy newborn.

I will say that, when William started to get fussy in the first few weeks after bringing him home from the hospital, swaddling him tightly did help.

The video will illustrate this better than my words, but here is how we swaddle babies.

  • Lay a blanket on a flat surface like a diamond and fold down the top corner about 6 inches to form a straight edge.
  • Place your baby on his back so that the top of the fabric is at shoulder level.
  • Bring your baby’s left arm down. Pull the corner of the blanket near his left hand over his arm and chest, and tuck the leading edge under his back on his right side.
  • Bring your baby’s right arm down. Pull the corner of the blanket near his right hand over his arm and chest, and tuck the cloth under his left side.
  • Twist or fold the bottom end of the blanket and tuck it loosely behind your baby, making sure that both legs are bent up and out from his body, his hips can move, and his legs can spread apart naturally.

Terrorism and Media Frames

Terrorism and Media Frames
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I used to work as a criminal justice adjunct instructor for a a private college here in Nashville.  I ended up teaching terrorism much of the time, and while going through my computer I found several PowerPoint files and lesson plans I felt would be useful to some of the readers of this site.

Now this post on terrorism and media frames comes from the terrorism course, but media bias, contagion effects, the big lie, and how media framing is something all well informed citizens need to understand.

It is rather long – coming in at 30 minutes, but I saved you from any cutesy intro music, and all the nice to know illustrative stuff I would have talked about in a normal 3 hour course.

The media doesn’t look out for your interests like some claim they do, and if you want to be informed, it pays to understand why.

As you see what the media reports on and how they frame the story to show a particular view an unbiased individual can see that the news is being presented to show a particular view.

While you can become informed by the modern news if you don’t recognize the bias you can be influenced without even knowing it.

PRN Episode #5 What to Do After a Shooting

PRN Episode #5 What to Do After a Shooting
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In this episode David talks about What to Do After a Shooting.

Its easy to learn how to shoot.  However, it is harder to learn when to shoot.  Even more so what to do after.  Because that is not always addressed in some classes.

There are two schools of thought when dealing with the police, and David discusses them both

The show is scheduled for Monday at 10pm central time at this link.

If you cannot listen on Monday, you can always download the podcast for listening at your own leisure.

I have several blog posts on this subject and have written about this on other sites like guns.com as well.  It is my view that there are many people teaching how to shoot, and a few teaching when to shoot, but learning What to Do After a Shooting is not as well covered in the instructor world.

If you don’t know how to handle yourself during police questioning you can find yourself a suspect instead of a crime victim.  The justice system has two different paths depending on its view of you as it relates to victim or subject.  Officers quickly decide which path to put you one, and it is extremely hard to get back if you have been derailed off of the crime victim track.  This is a topic I have written extensively about.