Monday, June 29, 2009

You can learn a lot from a name



Went to the Malad Welsh Festival on Saturday. It was a lot of fun.

There was a "Taste of Wales" booth,Welsh singing, other performances, and games for the kids to play. One of the highlights was a horse-drawn wagon tour around Malad. The picture above was taken of the wagon behind ours--it was nice that the weather was great there on Saturday.

About now you may be thinking (if you are still reading) that this is just a fun activity post, but oh, even on this trip I found something that applies to prepping...and it has to do with how Malad got its name.

According to those on the tour, Malad reportedly got its name in one of two ways:

--When some Frenchmen arrived in Malad, they got terribly ill after drinking the water. Malad is short for maladie, which means sickness in French.

--When some Frenchmen arrived in Malad, they ate the tails of some beavers that had apparently not had that great of a diet. Beaver tail was considered a delicacy at that point--and you guessed it, they got sick. So they named the town Maladie, which eventually became Malad City.

So what did I learn from this trip?

--The Welsh Festival in Malad is great.
--Was reminded that clean water in all circumstances, including emergency preparation, is a necessity. Make sure you have good water to drink, or you may be marked forever. Malad's been called Malad for a long, long, time.
--Know the source of any beaver tail you decide to eat. You know, just in case... :)

A good time was had by all. (This time. Not the time the Frenchmen visited. :)

Friday, June 26, 2009

Thank you, Congressman Minnick! Thank you, Congressman Simpson!

Just called Congressman Minnick's office (again) and was informed by his staff that he is voting against the Cap and Trade Bill.

Just called Congressman Simpson's office (again) and was informed by his staff that he is voting against the Cap and Trade Bill.

That's Idaho. Thanks to all who called and e-mailed. And thank you, thank you, thank you, to Congressman Simpson and Congressman Minnick for voting against the cap and trade bill.

Thursday, June 25, 2009

Speak out on "Cap and Trade"

You might be asking yourself why I would want to make a post about the cap and trade bill coming up for a vote tomorrow in the House of Representatives, or link to an article like this one. What does that have to do with prepping?

Well, according to the linked article, this bill:

--has the potential to really, really, really negatively affect our energy bills.

--could cause food prices to go the wrong way---up, up, up.

I don't want to have to resort to using what could be considered emergency supplies before I have to in either the energy or food arenas. These problems are only two of the problems I see with this bill, but aren't they reason enough?

I hope that you are against this legislation as well, but whether you agree with me or not, I ask you to contact your Representatives about this matter as soon as you can--it's scheduled to go to a vote tomorrow. If you are in Idaho, our Representatives are:

Congressman Walt Minnick

Congressman Michael Simpson

If you are not in Idaho, you can find your Representative's contact information here. You will need your zipcode to access information.

The bill is H.R. 2454, but asking them to vote against the cap and trade bill will help everyone. Food and energy prices are at sticker shock levels for many already. The good news is that the previously linked article also indicates that the result of the vote is not set in stone.

I just got off the phone with Congressman Minnick's office. His staff indicated that he has not yet made a decision on this legislation. This may be true with other Representatives as well. Your voice can make a difference.

Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Guest Post: A Fathers Day Lament

Note from Marie: This is late only because I don't check the e-mail account connected to this site often enough. I first saw this today, and my gratitude goes out to IdahoBob for graciously allowing me to post this wonderful tribute to his father. As I told him, I think it is a message that resonates all year round.


A Fathers Day Lament

Today is Fathers Day, and it is the first time that I have not been able to talk to my father on this day. You see, he passed last July.

I was out of town for a month, working on a job in another state, and my wife called me one morning, on my boss's cell phone, to give me the news. It was not un-expected, 'cause he had recently had quadruple bypass surgery, and had developed pneumonia. He was a very sick man for next four months.

When we found out that he had developed pneumonia, we made the decision to travel to where he was hospitalized, (in that horrible Socialist State of Kalifornication) and spent two weeks with him. No hesitation or argument with each other, we packed and went.

Ya have to understand, my father was my hero. He was the most important man in my life. I loved him, deeply. And I told him so, often.

So today, especially, I miss him. there is a great big empty hole in my heart.

On this day, Fathers Day, hug your fathers hard, kiss 'em, tell 'em that you love 'em, and that they are the most important man in your life.

Make 'em your hero.

BobIII

Monday, June 22, 2009

Guest Post: CQ CQ CQ APN CQ CQ W4DMH CALLING CQ QRZ

Note from Marie: I am sadly, sadly, sadly lacking in knowledge when it comes to HAM radios, but wouldn't want those in Idaho who would like to be involved in a nation-wide network be denied the opportunity due to lack of knowledge. I do plan on getting licensed sometime, and would appreciate input from anyone from Idaho about local HAM activities. That said, I have no idea what the title to this post is....but thanks to WV Santa for this information and the permission to post it: (Hope I got the spacing right after the cut and paste--I tried. :)


CQ CQ CQ APN CQ CQ W4DMH CALLING CQ QRZ

OK now I have done it in true DX fashion for all you HAM'S out there.I know others that read this will be real confused now but I would really like to hear from you HAM'S out there so I figured I would write in a language you would understand. We need to get HAM'S involved here so we can try to get a net going to help with off the grid communication among the prepper networks. I know there are many Ham's already involved in the prepper network and many more that read so please come forward and help us with getting this going. Now that all the people that read this (that are not HAM'S) are confused let me add one more slang that only the HAM'S will understand.

73 de W4DMHPS

Please email me so we can get to work on this.
wvsantaclaus@aol.com_________________

God Bless all from the Wild and Wonderful West Virginia Santa

*****UPDATE******

From W4DMH

Dave aka Santa

To everyone that has showed an interest in the HAM radio netJust to let everyone know Bob KI4HEE from South Carolina and myself Dave W4DMH held a test run Thursday night on 40 meters at 9:00 PM Eastern Time or 0100 UTC time.

I am sorry that I did not get this info out but this all came about by email at the spur of the moment. It was a success even though I do not have the proper antenna in the air for 40 meter. I will cure that this weekend however. Bob will be posting the results on the South Carolina Page on Saturday June 20 2009. I invite you all to read that to see how the impromptu net turned out. For a spur of the moment thing, I think it was great. This little test run proved to me that if we try we can make this work.

I will let you know when this all gets worked out for sure but for now I believe we will try this on Thursday Nights from 9 pm to 10 pm Eastern time or 0100 to 0200 UTC on the frequency of 7.245 or there about for any that wish to come join in or just to listen.

Thank you all for your interest in the American Preppers Network Ham Radio Net. Hope to hear you soon.

73 All

W4DMH

Dave aka Santa

Friday, June 19, 2009

Meridian Dairy Days

A lot late posting on this, but there is one day left for Meridian Dairy Days. If you live in or are going to be in the Meridian area tomorrow, you may want to check out the last of the Meridian Dairy Days, which apparently have been going on since Tuesday. You can find out about the details here.

Sounds like a good community event. I don't know the details, but if there are people there who could become your local source for produce or dairy or name your needed item here, everyone wins. Don't forget the list of local suppliers on the sidebar, and if you are not from Idaho, you may want to check out the food co-op directory , which is a fantastic directory that includes co-ops both in the U.S. and Canada. Making sure you have a local produce supplier can be priceless in an emergency, and already being a customer before an emergency can only benefit all involved...

Wednesday, June 17, 2009

Attitude, attitude, attitude

Well, I watched the final episode of "Out of the Wild" last week. Out of the nine who started, there were five when this episode started. There were only four who made it (yes, some made it!) "out of the wild" and back to civilization. (I blogged about this show here, in case you have not yet heard about it. )

One of the things that was striking to me about this episode is what the woman who left the experience said when she was leaving. The people in this experience were to get no reward (other than personal satisfaction) for completing it, so that was not a factor. And they didn't know when the experience would end. What this woman said (paraphrasing, sorry that I don't have it verbatim) was along these lines:

"People say what if it ends tomorrow? For me it doesn't matter. For me it ends today."

I have to say that I admire everyone who stuck with this experience, and the woman who left (I think there were only like two or three days left in the experience at this point) was an extremely valuable member of the team. She knew how to do things cooking with what they were able to hunt down and eat that I thought were amazing. She stuck it out for about four weeks if memory serves, and then she decided she was done. She didn't know it was almost over. But it was.

For the four remaining people, it would appear to get worse before it got better, and they could easily have just decided to just push their little rescue buttons. Some of the things that happened just previous to their boarding a train that would take them to civilization (My apologies for any inaccuracies--it's not on purpose, and hopefully there are none):

--They hadn't eaten anything substantial for three days when they got their final map, which, by the way, indicated that they had something like 14 miles to hike before they reached their next shelter. For some reason, it seems to me that one of the things they were worried about was the fact that they would have to make a temporary shelter at a high altitude on this particular trek, and hadn't been that successful in that kind of endeavor in the past. They found this out the night before the actual trip, giving them plenty of time to decide to just go home.

--They finally saw some cabins, but there was no one there. If they hadn't been paying attention, they may have missed the fact that railroad tracks were close by. When they saw the tracks, they had another dilemma: would the train come by once a week? Would the train come by once a month? They looked at the tracks and found that they were clean, indicating that a train had come through since the last snowfall. Since this is Alaska we're talking about, it was snowing regularly by this point. I think about that moment a lot--if trains only come by once a week or once a month, would I have stayed with the experience at that point? Or would I have figured that since the tracks were clean, that I had already missed the train, and there wouldn't be another train for at least days, and maybe weeks? I like to think that even if I thought that temporarily, that I would have then decided to perhaps follow the tracks... So there was another point that they could have said they were done, but they didn't. They made a makeshift flag out of a white shirt (which indicated distress) and waited for a train.

A train did come. I don't know how long it took, but it was the same day. The four who remained were transported to a town where their family members were waiting for them. Their attitudes, again, in my recollection, were different, and the one that sticks out to me the most was what one of the men said, along these lines:

"I was never going to quit. That button (that would have immediately summoned a helicopter to take him back to civilization) on my belt may as well have been nothing more than a piece of jewelry."

The other people who made it also gave their reasons, and though I don't remember their words exactly, they all stuck with it, even though it was an incredibly difficult ordeal. It seems that one of them said that there were times when she was so cold she just wanted to go home. And another said something like he was never going to quit as well.

I guess what it comes down to for me in terms of attitude was that they made a decision not to quit, and they stuck with it. This didn't mean that they didn't want to go home. It didn't mean that they wouldn't rather have had nice things, and at the very least would have preferred having the basic comfort of being able to get warm. It meant that they wanted to go home the way that they chose, and they did have the choice. It did matter, to the ones who made it through to the end, that the whole experience "could end tomorrow." They had hope, even though at times they had very little else. It looked very, very bleak before it got better. But it did get better. They won. And the only competition they had was the competition within themselves.

How does this apply to surviving tough situations and preparing for emergencies? I'm sure it varies from situation to situation when it comes to specifics, but having a good attitude, and not giving up, is much more likely to lead you to a positive outcome whether you are dealing with emergency preparedness or actual emergencies. Even preparing for emergencies can seem overwhelming at times, because there are so many things that could happen, and sometimes there are things that we would like to get, but have to wait and save up for. The people on the program would rather have been warm "today", but had to wait as well...

Continuing to go forward is a triumph, even when progress seems slow. You never know what will happen tomorrow, and tomorrow does matter, whether for preparation, or in the midst of emergencies. In the case of the people in the program, attitude appears to have been a major factor. It is a major factor for us as well. My proverbial hat is off to all of the people who participated in that experience.

Thursday, June 11, 2009

Something fishy

Well, perhaps I should have said some things fishy. A couple of fishing relating items specific to Idaho:

---Idaho's having a free fishing day this Saturday--June 13. Find the details here.

---There's a request for public comment on fishing rules until June 26th. Find the details here.

Thought you might be interested--it's good to acquire and develop fishing skills. It's also good to make your voices heard....

Monday, June 8, 2009

Gratitude for the Armed Forces


We heard there was a B-17 at the Idaho Falls Airport this past weekend, so we loaded up the children and managed to get there. As you can see from the weather, it was not exactly an ideal time for planting the garden. As it was, we were outside in the rain, except when we took a self-guided tour of the aircraft. No matter what the weather, we wouldn't have wanted to miss this--not very often you see a WWII plane up close and personal...

There was also a gentleman there that was a tailgunner on a B-17. Amazing. We took our children through and talked about history and hopefully they will remember the men who fought in WWII, both those who did and those who did not come back.

What does this have to do with being prepared? Well, we each need to do our part and if we are prepared for emergencies of whatever nature, we will be stronger individually and stronger as a nation. We can learn from the resourcefulness and courage of those who have gone before us so that we too can meet whatever is coming our way. WWII was a tough time--victory gardens, rations, and in the end, success.

It is always hard for me to know what to say to Veterans of whatever war they have served in, because words always seem so inadequate. Having acknowledged that, I will say this:

To those who have served and returned: Thank you for putting your lives on the line to protect our freedom and to serve our country.

To those who have had family members serve and not return: I am grateful and I will never forget.

Thursday, June 4, 2009

Please get your grains in...

Not such good news on the wheat front. Kellene Bishop, over at Preparedness Pro, put this post up recently about the wheat shortage. I hope that you will read the entire post, including the comments, but this portion will hopefully catch the attention of some of those who may be sitting on the fence when it comes to purchasing some wheat for their storage:

"I have just received inside information from two chains that formal letters are being disseminated among grocery stores across the U.S. informing employees that wheat and affected prices will be doubling by the end of the summer. Food prices in general have experienced the highest inflation rate of the past 18 years. "

"Not such good news" is not strong enough. Bad, bad, unfortunate news is closer. There is also this post, over at North Dakota Preppers Network posted a while ago. More recent articles on the wheat situation can be found here and here.

If you don't have wheat, or enough wheat, in storage, please consider increasing your supply if you have the means. In Idaho, the news may be a little better, according to this article, but it's always good to hope for the best and prepare for the worst.