By Daisy Luther
Survival Saturday is a round-up of products, the week’s news, and recommended reading material for folks who are interested in being prepared.
This Week’s Products
Since most of the information this week is related to the financial crisis, it seems silly to say, “Save money, but hey, buy this expensive preparedness item.” So today, I’ve only got one product to recommend, and it’s about $5. If you’re spending money on preparedness this week, please, focus on food or information.
Have you overlooked this silly little item? Those buckets that emergency food come in are wonderful things, keeping out moisture, oxygen, and pests, but they can also keep out humans. If you’ve ever been foiled (or said a few choice words to) a food storage bucket, you’ll want to be sure to keep this inexpensive tool on hand for opening buckets. And if you haven’t been foiled, go open one right now. What if you had to open it one handed because of an injury? What if an older person was trying to use the bucket? These gadgets are worth 10x the price, and this one is found in the hardware section for opening 5 gallon paint buckets, making it less expensive than the ones sold in the food storage section. (It’s identical.) The plastic construction won’t damage your bucket’s ability to seal like a metal wrench from your tool box will. This is a $5 “investment” in making your life easier in a disaster.
This Week in Preparedness
Doctors warn California residents, “ You have to relocate — you have to get away…“ Nearly 18 million residents of the greater Los Angelos area are in peril as an immense plume of methane gas continues to spew into the air, unchecked. This epic eruption of toxic chemicals has been quietly going on for over a month, however California Governor Brown only declared a state of emergency this week. The industrial disaster has been compared to the BP oil spill, but in a densely populated area. Don’t worry though. The company whose gas is leaking is giving area residents free home air filters. There is, as of yet, absolutely no plan in place to stop the eruption.
There actually WAS a coordinated terror attack on New Year’s Eve. Remember when German officials boasted of stopping a terror attack on New Year’s Eve? Well, it turns out, there was a massive attack that was swept under the rug of “stuff people don’t need to know.” On New Year’s Eve, in Cologne, “up to 1,000 men of Arab or North African appearance sexually assaulted and robbed women who were enjoying the festivities.” That proves nothing, Daisy, you may be thinking. Well, another report confirms that the culprits were the ones many Americans have been concerned about. (Translated from German) “The identity checks revealed Cologne police report continues: “Only a small minority Was it North Africans, the majority of Controlled by Syrians…Most of them were freshly traveled asylum seekers. They have presented documents that are handed out at the points of an asylum application.” By the way, Cologne mayor Henriette Reker betrayed women and rape victims everywhere by suggesting that “that women should adopt a “code of conduct” to prevent future assault.” According to her, the assailants are just a little confused about how folks celebrate outside of their home region. One big misunderstanding, you know.
By the way, if you think the government is trying to take your guns, you’re crazy. After reading the above, you might be thinking about the importance of getting armed to protect yourself, and you may be worried about the increasing difficulty of doing so. If you’re worried, you’re crazy. You’re a crazy conspiracy theorist. Obama said so. He stuttered a few times, too, in his earnestness.
How would you handle an unexpected expense of a $1000? According to a recent survey released by Bankrate, 63% of Americans do not have the emergency savings to take care of a crisis that costs $1000 or more, and the respondents offered some very fiscally unsound ideas about how they would deal with the emergency. The majority of Americans are only one missed paycheck from financial disaster.
George Soros, the creepy voice of economic doom, says disaster is imminent. No matter how you feel about George Soros, his financial predictions are worth listening to, and his current warning is a real humdinger. Soros says our current situation is on par with, and possibly worse than, the crash of 2008, from which America has never actually recovered. Indeed, the stock market has had the lowest start this year since, well, you know, forever. Here are the steps you should take immediately should the market collapse (hint: the events on a Monday after a bad close on Friday are the ones to watch), you need to get yourself out of debt ASAP, and you need to focus on getting prepared for the economic disaster that is hurtling down the pipe.
Did you ever wonder why our country seems to be getting sicker by the year? Given the huge leaps in medical technology and the scientific discoveries made over the past decades, doesn’t it seem as though people in civilized countries would be leading longer, healthier lives? In reality, it’s just the opposite. More than half of all Americans will suffer from chronic illness or cancer in their lifetimes, an exponential increase over previous generations. Here are some possible reasons this could be happening – and they’re uncomfortably close to home.
The Bookshelf
Since financial doom is in the news this week, the Bookshelf focuses on some of my favorite books about getting on your feet financially.
If you are in debt, this is a must-read guide for bailing yourself out and getting in the black as quickly as possible. Dave Ramsey takes no prisoners in his blunt instructions for getting on your feet. He may hurt your feelings a little, but his Total Money Makeover strategies have worked for more than 2.5 million families.
It’s no secret that this is my favorite book ever. Amy Dacyczyn feels like an old friend, and I re-read this book every single year without fail. Her strategies are delivered in a witty, but no-nonsense kind of way. When I first read this book, I was a struggling mom with a newborn and a husband out of work. It was the beginning of the darkest financial period of my life. I checked this book out of the library during those desperate days, and by applying her strategies, I began to see a difference in our lives, even with the meager resources we had on hand. You’ve gotta read The Tightwad Gazette. The information was originally published in the early 90s, but it has lost not one ounce of its
The Prepper’s Guide to Food Storage
This short and sweet guide will help you to build a prepper’s pantry in no time flat. Gaye Levy of Backdoor Survival is that warm, sensible aunt who takes you by the hand and walks you through the basics of building a food supply. I truly love her writing style. It’s a very good book, filled with thrifty tips to fill your cupboards. It covers all of the basics, such as Store What You Eat and Eat What you Store, 20 Items to Kick Start Your Food Storage Pantry, Tips for Building an Emergency Food Supply, Common Food Storage Mistakes, Moving Beyond Pre-packaged Foods, and much, much more! The Prepper’s Guide to Food Storage is geared toward those who are just getting started, so it’s a great guide to pass on to someone who may be ready to begin building a family food supply.
Anything to add to Survival Saturday?
Do you have any news links you want to share? Now’s the time! You are absolutely welcome to post your links in the comments below. (And this feature will be so much cooler if you guys post the things that you found important this week!)
I agree times are getting dangerous relative to financial collapse. An admonition to get out of debt ASAP may be a bit late if the current market mess is the beginning of the end. If resources are limited I would tend to put them into storeable food and other necessities. If this round of selling is turned around I would make debt reduction my second priority. It might even be worthwhile to liquidate retirement savings to get out of debt (if you have any!).
The sexual assault on women in Germany on New Years is an urban problem. There is no way a normal police force can prevent mob misbehavior especially when the victims are mixed into the crowd. The solution is to stay out of crowds in troubled times and if possible stay out of the city.
I am still getting web TV audio when I read one of your articles.
I’ve removed 3 more possibilities for the video ads. For some weird reason, they aren’t showing up for me, but you aren’t the only one telling me that it’s happening. Please let me know if this has resolved it, okay? 🙂
Hello Daisy,
The methane leak is an interesting discussion. From my understanding, the houses were built around the methane wells, which have been there for decades. There is always a danger of a “spill” or leak, and in other decades, it would just have been “lit” and burned off, not more problem. Now, with the new EPA rules, they cannot do that, but there is another solution, which is not being done at the present time, and is very easy, and relatively inexpensive. There is a way to “recover” the methane from the source well/s, with a special truck that will condense it. Again, I’m getting this second hand from someone else, but it sounded plausible, so I wanted to pass it on. But will that solution be implemented? Probably NOT since methane is so inexpensive. And no one will want the liability. I will guess that there is a fight on who is signing off on the liability part which is why no one is fixing it. So instead of people fixing things, we have people worried if they are going to get sued, so nothing gets done. WElcome to the 21st century folks.