Can You Sleep When the Wind Blows?

Can You Sleep When the Wind Blows?
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A close friend of mine sent me this email, and while I cannot find the source to give a citation, I feel it is very important to share.

I feel it has a dual meaning, both for Christians, as well as preppers. I hope you enjoy it, as it gave me something to ponder on.

Years ago, a farmer owned land along the Atlantic seacoast.

He constantly advertised for hired hands. Most people were reluctant to work on farms along the Atlantic . They dreaded the awful storms that raged across the Atlantic , wreaking havoc on the buildings and crops.

As the farmer interviewed applicants for the job, he received a steady stream of refusals. Finally, a short, thin man, well past middle age, approached the farmer. “Are you a good farm hand?” the farmer asked him.

“Well, I can sleep when the wind blows,” answered the little man.

Although puzzled by this answer, the farmer, desperate for help, hired him. The little man worked well around the farm, busy from dawn to dusk, and the farmer felt satisfied with the man’s work.

Then one night the wind howled loudly in from offshore.

Jumping out of bed, the farmer grabbed a lantern and rushed next door to the hired hand’s sleeping quarters. He shook the little man and yelled, “Get up! A storm is coming! Tie things down before they blow away!”

The little man rolled over in bed and said firmly, “No sir. I told you, I can sleep when the wind blows.”

Enraged by the response, the farmer was tempted to fire him on the spot. Instead, he hurried outside to prepare for the storm.

To his amazement, he discovered that all of the haystacks had been covered with tarpaulins. The cows were in the barn, the chickens were in the coops, and the doors were barred. The shutters were tightly secured. Everything was tied down.

Nothing could blow away. The farmer then understood what his hired hand meant, so he returned to his bed to also sleep while the wind blew.

When you’re prepared, spiritually, mentally, and physically, you have nothing to fear.

Can you sleep when the wind blows through your life?

The hired hand in the story was able to sleep because he had secured the farm against the storm.

We secure ourselves against the storms of life by grounding ourselves in the Word of God.

We don’t need to understand, we just need to hold His hand to have peace in the middle of storms.

I hope you can sleep when the wind blows.

10 Prepper Gifts Under $50

10 Prepper Gifts Under $50

10 Prepper Gifts Under $50
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In order to help out for the holiday gift giving, here are 10 Prepper Gifts Under $50.

Next week we will have a top 10 list for gifts around $25, and the week after we will have 10 great stocking suffers under $10.

I hope this list will help you find great things for the preppers you love, or to gently help the non-prepper be just a little better prepared.

When you get into gifts that cost around $50 then you are probably getting gifts for people you truly care about.

These gifts are nice and useful to people that may not be preppers, but I know that many of them are items I would love to get from my family.

It is always nice to do things to protect your family and friends and these gifts definitely help with that.

 

Motorola MD200TPR FRS Two-Way, 20 Mile Radio Triple Pack (Black)

  • 22 channels with range up to 20-mile range
  • Easy straightforward operation for indoor and outdoor communication
  • 10 regular call tones
  • AC 5V, LCD battery meter
  • Battery life: 12 hours NiMH or 29 hours alkaline

Etón SCORPION Rugged, Portable Multi-Purpose Digital Radio with Crank Power Back-up and Weather Alerts – Green (NSP100GR)

  • Multi-function radio can charge smartphones
  • Features a flashlight, weather alerts, crank and solar back-up power options, carabiner and flashlight
  • must-have to take camping, use around the house and keep in your ‘go-bag’
  • Digital AM/FM radio
  • NOAA weather band alerts you to bad weather heading your way
  • Bright LED flashlight to light your way
  • Solar panel charges the internal battery
  • Crank charging – charges the internal battery or your smartphone

KA-BAR Full Size US Marine Corps Fighting Knife, Straight

  • Most Famous blade knife design in the world
  • 1095 Cro-van steel
  • Leather Handle, USMC Fightning Knife
  • 7″ Straight Edge Blade
  • Knife Made in USA, Leather Sheath made in Mexico

Kyocera Advanced Ceramic Coffee Grinder, Black

  •  Multi-purpose grinder prepares fresh coffee, salt, pepper, green tea, and even sesame seeds
  • A ceramic grinding mechanism never alters flavor of grinds, resulting in fresh, flavorful, and pure ingredients
  • Advanced ceramic close in hardness to diamond; will never rust and will provide a long useful life
  • Adjustable from fine to coarse grinds; non-slip base ensures stability
  • Reusable glass container stores up to 100 g of coffee grinds and is dishwasher safe

Howard Leight by Honeywell Impact Sport Sound Amplification Electronic Earmuff, Classic Green

  • External audio input connects to MP3 players and scanners
  • Amplifies conversation and commands with one single volume control knob
  • Automatic 4 hour shut-off increases battery life
  • Automatically blocks noise above 82 dB, noise reduction rating NRR 22
  • Adjustable, low-profle design folds for easy storage

OXO Good Grips Food Mill

  • Food mill includes 3 stainless-steel discs for preparing foods of fine, medium, and coarse textures
  • Stainless-steel inner bowl accommodates hot foods and prevents staining
  • Simple release button for easy disc exchange and disassembly
  • Non-slip legs, handle, and cranking knob; folds for easy storage
  • 11-Inch diameter; 2.3-quart capacity; all parts are dishwasher-safe

Ceramic Water Filter Kit

  • 0.2 micron filtration efficiency
  • Do it yourself- buckets not included
  • Will filter out everything from giardia from a clear mountain stream to the muck from the most turbid of water sources.
  • Easy to assemble
  • Stores for years until needed.

Hand Operated Grain Mill by VICTORIO

  • Precision stainless steel milling cone is durable and makes fine bread quality flour
  • Designed to be all-purpose so it can grind wheat, corn, rice, oats, barley and more
  • Makes about one half cup of fine flour per minute
  • Small compact design makes it easy to store

Actron CP7830 Hand Vacuum Pump

  • Diameter measures 3-1/2-in
  • Helps to find any vacuum or gasket leak
  • Includes rugged steel handle frame and solid brass cylinder
  • Comes complete with 24′-in hose and tapered hose adapters

AAA 65-Piece Winter Severe Weather Travel Kit

  • Compact 65-piece road assistance kit for winter conditions by AAA and LifeLine First Aid
  • Folding shovel with sheath
  • 3-piece fleece set
  • Strobe light
  • 46-piece first-aid kit

I hope these 10 Prepper Gifts Under $50 are useful to you.

Why Prepare

Why Prepare
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Why Prepare?  Well, let me take a quick second to tell you why we prepare.

Monday I spent all day out in the woods for work, It was raining, and by the end of the day I was soaked to the bone. I am not complaining mind you, as a bad day in the field is better than a good day in the office, but by the time I got home all I wanted to do was dry off, warm up, and get a nice hot meal and brag to my wife how cool a job I have…

So as I am getting close to home my wife called telling me a tree fell in the yard, she said we still has electricity, but she was worried. On first glance it wasn’t that big of a deal, but as I walked closer I noticed that the tree caught my power line and did a lot of damage.

I was worried about the risk of fire and electrocution, as we had a tree crossing a power-line, into a wire fence, with the meter ripped away from the house and loose wires hanging free, all in the middle of a rain storm

I went into emergency mode, and told the wife to grab a set of clothes for the night and call the electric company as I turned the breaker off and checked the animals.

Luckily, as we have flashlights hanging from several doorknobs, and “go-kits” with a change of clothes medicine and a little emergency cash, emergency mode only lasted a few minutes.

We went up the street to the hotel, splurged on a nice restaurant meal, and the next day I called an electrician and the insurance company.

This was an unexpected problem, and rather minor, but by having a good general preplan, it made our life a lot easier, even though we never thought this particular event would happen.

This leads me to my final point. Plan A is a long, uneventful, and happy life, Plan B is a good rifle, and plenty of beans and bullets. We are not scared, because we are prepared. Prepping makes life easier, and if it doesn’t your doing it wrong.

Maybe you can see how it helps me and my family to have some level of constant preparedness.  If it does, maybe you can stop asking the question, Why Prepare?

Organizing your Community for Disaster

Organizing your Community for Disaster
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It’s a well-known idea in the prepper community that you cannot survive alone. Some folks may want to ignore this and try to get everything they could ever need, but prepping is not just about stuff. No single person can ever be totally self-sufficient – There will always be something you do not have the resources, skill or time to make. Heck even if you could, who will guard you when you sleep, shower, or well…

I think nothing is better preparedness than organizing your community for disaster.  It is not easy, and you can’t do it fast, but it is worth every bit of time you spend to do it.

I like to say (which gets me strange or knowing looks depending on who I say it to) – “You cannot shoot everybody”. To me a good plan takes into consideration your neighbors, to get others near you to prep and plan for their own disaster needs. It turns neighbors into allies rather than enemies. It gives you someone to work with and makes a community.

The problem (as I see it) is that while all sorts of government and non-government agencies preach disaster preparedness a similar amount (sometimes under the same czar) or agencies post bulletins telling people to look out for people that prep. If you just tell everyone you’re a prepper you will most likely get invited to less neighborhood cookouts than more.

My attempt to try to organize my community is by going slowly and trying to organize a government sponsored group. That way if it takes off I can slowly build trust in the community, gauge capabilities, and eventually approach the likeminded for a more comprehensive plan.

DHS has a program through Citizen Corps called Community Emergency Response Teams (CERT). A CERT team is a group of volunteers that receive free training in emergency response. They take classes on basic disaster response, light search and rescue, first aid, firefighting, and other needed response activities. The idea is that in the immediate aftermath of a disaster, CERT members grab their gear, meet up, and rapidly assess the needs of the immediate community. They can then report back to the local emergency management agency a list of needs and hazards thereby making response faster and more efficient.

Because it is government sponsored and relatively well known it is a lot less “threatening” to non-preppers. I imagine going door to door talking about bobs, SHTF, WROL, and storing ammo would not be well received in most areas. Going door to door talking about an enhanced neighborhood watch sponsored by FEMA to make sure nobody is left to fend for themselves after a flood or tornado is much less “non pc”.

So what I did was approach the County Emergency Management Director and ask him for support. He told me he thought it was a great idea, but that he has tried it before and did not get a good turnout for the classes.

I then made a flier with the information, what CERT was, that it was free, that it did not take a lot of time, and the benefits. I printed out 100 flyers and over a weekend my wife drove me around to drop them off. I was surprised at the friendliness of my neighbors, I received a very positive response in all but two homes – one was too busy, and the other very haughtily told me she did not think anything could happen, that the government would help if it did, and she did not want to waste her time (I told the wife to remember her – she gets no help if something does happen).

So I passed the fliers out – Part one – hopefully I will get a response. If not, I will continue working in the yard and being a role model for “urban homesteading” and “sustainable living”, if a disaster ever strikes maybe enough will remember my attempt to organize which may give me some credibility toward a response after the fact. Obviously that is not as good as having a local group pre-disaster, but its better than nothing.

I was careful not to mention prepping in my CERT conversations; I am less worried about OPSEC than someone like Mr. Rawles from survivalblog. That is because of my firearm classes who I am and what I am doing is on the internet, but I feel like most who read my articles would be the type to join a CERT team, so I don’t worry about them. However, I did not want to talk about my preps to those that live down the street, as I would not want them to get the idea to take what is mine (Unlike Dilbert, I have no protein bars), if they try, I cannot shoot everybody – They may get me in a rush, but I can turn a head or 30 into canoes…