Knowledge Weighs Nothing

How To Cook A (Whole) Chicken In A Coffee Can

CoffeeCanCookingWithChicken

Given the precautions about eating under cooked chicken, I was a bit skeptical about using this method, but when done properly, the main issue would seem to be over cooking the chicken, rather than under cooking, or uneven cooking. Turns out this is a great way to cook a whole chicken when camping, if the power’s off, or in SHTF scenarios.

Simply put – you place some wood and charcoal in the base of the coffee (or any size 10) can, wrap the chicken in foil and then leave to cook. To get the full information, check out the link below.

How To Cook A (Whole) Chicken In A Coffee Can

(Photo from: Survival Tek)

Chia Seeds: A Tiny Powerhouse For Sustainability

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Chia seeds have remarkable nutritional value, they are one of the very few foods that contain the full protein profile; this means you can get all the protein you need from just chia seeds alone. Usually you would need to combine two or more protein sources over several days to get all the vital amino acids require for health.

It’s not only the protein which makes chia seeds special, they are also full of omega 3 oils, iron, antioxidants, fiber and magnesium and potassium, and many other important vitamins. In short – chia seeds are a nutritional powerhouse!

Chia seeds are easy to prepare and as they don’t really taste of anything, they can by added to any meal to improve its nutritional value. Chia seeds store well, and take up hardly any space in the cupboard/pantry. When you take all of the above into account, I think it’s an excellent idea for preppers to start storing chia seeds, to add a much needed nutritional boost to all the processed and canned food which is typically stored. You can read more about the benefits of chia seeds below.

Chia Seeds: A Tiny Powerhouse For Sustainability

(Photo from:  ljguitar)

Shipping Containers For Underground Bunkers: Read This First!

Shipping containers for bunkers

Anyone who watches Doomsday Preppers on TV will be forgiven for thinking that you just purchase an old shipping container, dig a hole, throw it in the ground, cover it over, and there’s your bunker. True enough, purchasing a shipping container to use as a bunker can be a good way to build a bunker; they cost around $2000-$5000.  Some come already insulated and some are ready wired for electricity with lights, sockets and switches etc.

The problem is that shipping containers were not meant to be put in a hole in the ground and covered with tons of soil… Shipping containers are designed to carry weight across the floor and across their four corners, the sides and roof themselves are not designed to carry weight or resist pressure.  There are ways around this problem, such as building a Gabion Basket, but it is above the scope of this post to cover that, so Google is your friend here.

There are also several logistical issues with shipping containers; sure the company selling the container will likely deliver it to your site, but firstly, if you are building your bunker at a remote bug-out location, can a large flat-bed truck even access the site? Secondly, how are you going to get your shipping container into the hole that has been dug for it (actually how are you going to dig the hole, can you get an excavator on-site?) Most shipping containers are delivered on roll-off flat-bed trucks… There will be no facility to drop the shipping container in place, into the hole dug for it, so how are you going to achieve this? You will likely need to hire a fork-lift or a crane and once again, get it to the site.  Also is the site ground safe for a fork-lift or crane to operate? A muddy, rocky and uneven site is going to cause further problems here.

To summarise – shipping containers can make excellent underground bunkers, but there are some serious logistical considerations; how to ensure the shipping container can handle the pressure of being buried under tons and tons of soil, and also planning the location of your underground bunker, so the shipping container can be safely delivered to site and manoeuvred into its final resting place (hole).

This post is not in any way supposed to cover ALL the pros and cons of using a shipping container for an underground bunker; there are many considerations. The purpose of this article is to get you thinking about the logistics should you be considering purchasing a shipping container to use for an underground bunker.  I hope it gives you food for thought and encourages you to do further research and planning before committing to purchase a bug-out location, or possibly buying a container which will end up sitting on-site, unused for several years because the project was not thought out properly.

Snakebite Symptoms And First Aid Advice

snake

Firstly, before the snake bite first aid and treatment advice, brownie points for anyone who can identify the snake species AND sub-species…

It’s a fact – most people who get bitten by snakes are bitten because of their ignorance or stupidity. They were either not taking the appropriate precautions in snake country, or they were plain stupid and picked up an unidentified snake.  In fact one of the most common snake bite victims are drunk people who stumble across a snake and try messing around with it. That said, even the most experienced outdoors person can, and do, get bitten by snakes.

Regardless of why you got bitten, the questions is, what should you do?

Well firstly you should know that the vast majority of snakes worldwide are non-venomous, BUT, if you cannot identify the snake that bite you, you should assume it was venomous and follow the snake bite first aid and treatment advice below. You should also pay attention to the list of things you should not do; there are a lot of myths about what to do when bitten by a snake, and some of these can get you into even more trouble.

Snakebite Symptoms And First Aid Advice

(Photo from:  Michael Hodge)

Blisters – To Pop Or Not To Pop?

253563485_1760215ee3_z

Firstly, let me tell you, blisters are serious business! You should never ignore that hotspot you feel in your boot, take action right away and get a band-aid or some improvised cushioning on the to stop the rubbing. I did a 35 mile day hike once in some new boots (big mistake!), and I ignored the hotspots and blisters; it got to a point at around 25 miles that I knew I was in trouble, but I also knew that if I took off my boots and saw the damage, I probably wouldn’t continue. Anyway the long and short of it is – I made it home, but my feet were a mess and I couldn’t walk for two days afterwards…  They were so bad, they took weeks to heal completely.

If you are bugging-out or in a survival situation, not being able to walk for two days could kill you… Blisters caused by friction from boots and packs are entirely preventable; as soon as you feel discomfort, stop and treat.

Now with blisters themselves, everyone has an opinion on how to treat them…. But medically who is right and who is wrong? Is the best blister treatment to leave it alone, or to pop it? Does it depend on what kind of blister it is, for example a friction blister or a blister from a burn? Does it matter where the blister is located on your body? Thankfully the Survival Doctor aka James Hubbard, MD, MPH has written a post on his website on just this topic.  Check out Dr James’ thoughts below.

Blisters – To Pop Or Not To Pop?

(Photo from: Phil and Pam)

How To Make Your Own Essential Oils From Plants

5853331715_92366c8281

Essential oils are so versatile; they have so many health, household and medicinal uses.  We have done several posts in the past about using essential oils for various things, like first aid, repelling insects and even a post about utilizing essential oils in SHTF scenarios, and post SHTF survival…

Whilst essential oils are expensive to buy, they are pretty cheap (in comparison) to make at home. You will need to either make or buy an essential oil distilling still (the most popular way of extracting oils from plants), but once that is made or purchased, you only have to cover the cost of the plants used to make your oils; if you grow your own, you can make them for free.

Below is an easy to follow tutorial on how to make your own essential oils from plants using distillation. I also recommend you check out the book below: Making Plant Medicine by Richo Cech; the book shows how to make a whole manner of natural medicines from plants, including tinctures, essential oils, syrups, salves and more…

How To Make Your Own Essential Oils From Plants

Making Plant Medicine by Richo Cech

(Photo from:  EternalJoi)

FREE: Long Term Automatic Food Storage Calculator

5637645692_ea7c9ee7bc

If you are storing food, or thinking of starting to put some away, the difficult question to answer is – how much food do I need to store, per person, to survive a specific period of time? Thanks to ‘Food Storage Made Easy’, this is no longer a problem, as they have created a free Excel ‘Long Term Automatic Food Storage Calculator’.

The food calculator spreadsheet contains of commonly stored staple foods; just fill in how many adults and children there and how many months worth of food you’d like to store, and the spreadsheet automatically fills in all the quantities required for each food to survive for the period stated. Seriously, this is an awesome time saver and it couldn’t be easier to use. Just download it, open it in Excel, fill in your details, and it does the rest.

If you don’t have Excel, I have you covered! You can download the Open Source and free software Open Office, which is compatible with MS Word and MS Excel etc.

FREE: Long Term Automatic Food Storage Calculator (From: Food Storage Made Easy)

Related Book: Emergency Food Storage & Survival Handbook

(Photo from: Robert Benner Sr)

How To Make Your Own Low Cost Biodiesel Processor

FS8ILCJFFH9PPNB.MEDIUM

This is the first of two posts about biodiesel; this one explains how to make a biodiesel processor, so you can convert vegetable oil into usable diesel, the second post will actually show how to use the biodiesel processor to make your own biodiesel.

This biodiesel processor is actually very cheap to make, well it can be if you use reclaimed parts… The main two things you need are an old 10 gallon water heater and a pump; other than that you just need a load of cheap plumbing hoses, joints and connectors. I think this whole project could be made for less than $100. If you can then get your hands on lots of cheap or free waste cooking oil, you can produce your own cheap/ecological diesel to run vehicles and generators.

How To Make Your Own Low Cost Biodiesel Processor

(Photo from: drinkmorecoffee via Instructables)

How To Make Biodiesel From Waste Cooking Oil

F5EMPZQFGHSWNG4.MEDIUM

Firstly before anyone says so, that is not a jar of pee! It’s processed biodiesel!

This is the second of two posts on biodiesal, the first one showed how to make a cheap biodiesal processor and this one explains how to use the processor to produce biodiesel from waste cooking oil.

Years ago, restaurants etc were paying a fortune to have their waste oil disposed of; these days many have cottoned on to the fact that this waste oil can actually be valuable and they are now selling it so people can make biodiesel.  That said, if you ask around and do some research you should still be able to find a supply of free or very cheap waste oil, especially if you have the capability to pick up and remove the oil from their premises.

How To Make Biodiesel From Waste Cooking Oil

(Photo from: drinkmorecoffee via Instructables)

How To Make The ‘Master Tonic’ Natural Remedy (Recipe)

master-tonic-7

The Master Tonic is a natural remedy for all manner of illnesses and infections. It is most commonly used to treat colds and flu, but as it is anti-viral, anti-fungal and anti-bacterial it is useful in the treatment of many common illnesses and viruses. It can also be taken daily to ward off illness and maintain health.

Even though it is a natural remedy, the Master Tonic will knock your socks off! It is powerful, potent stuff, with garlic, horseradish, ginger and pepper amongst the fresh active ingredients. You can make and bottle a batch in one go, as it also stores well, apparently indefinitely.  Check out the recipe and tutorial below. A powerful and natural alternative to what you can get at the pharmacy.

How To Make The ‘Master Tonic’ Natural Remedy (Recipe)

(Photo from: Happy Mothering)