Tag Archives: ham radio

Momma Bear’s October Preps

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Although October’s weather has been mild and the leaves are just barely starting to come down, it feels like THE SKY IS FALLING! After an exceptionally warm and dry summer, the acorns are dropping in record numbers. (I learned that this will lead to next summer having a mice and deer population boom (due to the surplus food), followed by an overabundance of ticks that live on them.) I felt this was a good time to study up on acorns as a food source. Acorns, like other nuts, are surprisingly nutritious and containing protein and “good fat”. Acorns do have high quantities of tannins, which make them bitter and somewhat inedible as is, but these tannins can be removed with repeated boiling. The acorns can then be roasted and ground into a meal to be used in place of, or with, flour. You can even make a coffee-like substitute. Acorns are best stored as nuts, and then processed throughout the winter as needed, because the ground meal has a short shelf-life due to the high fat content. Fall is a great time for gathering “natural produce” from your local surrounds. If you are unfamiliar with wild edibles, look for a local class offered by an expert. Here are my links to: acorn processing (with recipes) and a local nature hike for wild food identification.

The HAM radio class has been…interesting. No, I am not going to lie, it’s HARD! This class is put on by the local HAM radio club, using approved slides by the American Radio Relay League (the people who license you). BUT, what they don’t tell you is that this book/class/test has almost nothing to do with how to actually operate the radios. It covers the laws of usage, and the how and why of the science that make these radios work. For anyone who doesn’t have a science or electrical background, or who has been out of school for a long time, this is some hard stuff! There is nothing in the book or class that will teach me how to actually dial in and listen to people broadcasting, let alone how to actually broadcast myself. My class ranges in age from about 12 to 70 years old and we are all pretty much shaking our heads. Once we finish the class and take the test we will be licensed, but we are all going to have to join the club to get mentors to teach us how to actually operate the radios!

In the last month my husband and I attended our first of two gun shows together, and took our concealed carry class. If you have never been to a gun show before (my husband had not), I describe it as “Bubbas, Bellies & Bullets”. They have so many rows jammed with tables that I literally had to squeeze in between all the big bellied bubbas to even walk. As a Marine my husband is familiar with a number of interesting weapons, but he had never seen so many interesting people in such a confined space. I finally explained to him that gun shows are to the NRA what ComiCon is to gamer/sci-fi nerds. Gun shows are the ultimate showplace for our right to bear arms. We spent our time at each of the shows looking at smaller handguns that I could use for concealed carry. What I discovered was that the bursitis in my elbow prevents me from comfortably holding any weapon over about 1.5 lbs., thus limiting my options. Like everything else, we will be taking our time, heading to the range to try them out, to find just the right weapon.

What did you do to prep this month?

Momma Bear’s September Preps

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September has arrived and we are seriously looking forward to cooler weather! We decided to shut down the garden a little early in expectation of heavy duty leaf raking. I filled my two compost barrels with the old plant foliage and with the dirt from my container gardens (except the one I am waiting to go to seed). We will be augmenting the barrels throughout the winter with egg shells, coffee grounds, etc. The plan is to use the two barrels of compost to refill the containers in the spring.

As mentioned, my ham radio came and, as I thought, it’s complicated! But I am signed up to take my licensing classes next month. I even discovered that my town has a ham radio store!

Last week Trace mentioned the website aGirlandherGun.org. I met “Girl” at a mutual friend’s house where we had gathered to watch a football game.  Having never met her before, we were talking and something set my antenna buzzing. I finally looked at her and said, “Are you a prepper?” She is the first local prepper I have met! We had a great evening with lots of discussion about guns and self-protection. If you have not yet had a chance to check out Girl’s website, please do. She is a firearms instructor, and is also taking EMT courses with her husband. You will see that prepping is relatively new to her also, and for a very serious reason. Interestingly, Girl is the second woman fire-arms instructor I know (the other being Pistol Packing Ladies, LLC). So along that train of thought…the husband and I will be taking our gun class next week at the Nation’s Gun Show outside of Washington, D.C. This will allow us to apply for our concealed carry permits. Though neither of us have decided yet if we will carry, we want to at least prepare and get permits.

Lastly, I have moved fish antibiotics (see Trace’s post Antibiotics In Your Preps?), and books on medications, to the top of our prepper purchase list. This last week the husband “humped” out of the field with a very deep blister in the ball of his foot (If you are not familiar with this phrase, it means Marine Corps camping in which you train and hike 20 or so miles with a 70-80 pound pack, carrying everything you need to eat, sleep, and shoot). He had done everything right: changed his socks regularly, removed his boots to sleep, powdered his feet, etc. But he still managed to get one really deep blister. As a long time Marine and marathoner, my husband teaches others on the importance of foot care. Initially it looked okay, and there were no visible breaks in the skin. Medical opted not to drain the blister because it was so deep, saying he was “good to go” (military slang for fine). But within 36 hours his foot was swollen, red and angry-looking, and he was running a fever. It looked like he had a Fred Flintstone foot that was about ready to split open. We both knew he had a raging case of cellulitis and needed antibiotic treatment. Cellulitis is a bacterial infection which, if left untreated, can lead to a more serious–even life-threatening–type of infections known as sepsis. It can also be resistant to antibiotics, and it is not uncommon to have to take IV antibiotic treatment. In any event, my husband was fine once he started his antibiotics. I personally am allergic to a number of antibiotics, including the one he was treated with, so it is imperative for us to carefully stock the right antibiotics. This was a good reminder of how something as common as a blister can quickly lead to a serious health risk; imagine how you would treat this in a post-collapse situation…

What’s next on your prepper training schedule?

Momma Bear’s August Preps

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August has been madhouse crazy for us with plenty of work and personal commitments. We have not done as much prepping as I would like. BUT, when we are too busy for physical preps I can always use the time to learn new things. This month’s field of study focused on EMP’s. I found two sites to be particularly informative. The first, The Commission to Assess the Threat to the United States from Electromagnetic Pulse Attack, includes two reports that describe the recommendations for how we should prepare for an EMP strike. It is interesting to read,  because you quickly grasp that this report was essentially poo-poo’d by our government and we remain ridiculously unprepared for such an attack. The second is a website that talks about home-made faraday cages designed to protect small electronic devices. After reading this, my son and I built a small faraday cage out of an old microwave; then placed our small shortwave radio inside.

This month we also made a few purchases. Following Trace and Sarah’s lead, we ordered the Duracell 813-0807 800 Watt DC to AC Digital Power Inverter. For the time being, we have opted not to buy a generator and this will be our interim solution. With three vehicles, we can surely spare one to power some things here at home. My second purchase was a ham radio. We are absolute beginners with ham radios and are not really looking to broadcast (just to receive information from a distance in an emergency), so we opted for a small, inexpensive hand-held model. We ordered the BaoFeng UV-5R 136-174/400-480 MHz Dual-Band DTMF CTCSS DCS FM Ham Two Way Radio, for less than $60. There is a more basic model available, but after reading some reviews we felt this one was a better choice. All that said, even this basic model is a complex item that is going to take some research to understand. Thankfully, there is always the internet and YouTube to answer our questions. And, of course, once we get this thing mastered it will also be going into the faraday cage. Our goal is that eventually all the BOB’s will have either shortwave or ham radios in them as well. I will report back next month on how the ham radio learning is going!

Last for this month, I continue to harvest tomatoes as they ripen and can them as tomatoes, salsa or ketchup. We have finally gotten over the real HEAT of the summer here so the garden isn’t quite so “needy” any more. We currently have green onions, cilantro, and baby spinach coming up in containers. These are probably our most eaten/purchased vegetables so we are really enjoying the fruits of our labor at the moment!

How did your month go, and how’s your garden growing?

(Monday: September is National Preparedness Month)