Tag Archives: The Doom and Bloom Survival Medical Handbook

What I Did This Week To Prep 2/10/12

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As I mentioned last week, we’re bringing on a new monthly contributor. Leah, who we’ll affectionately refer to as ‘Momma Bear’, will write for us the third Wednesday of each month. Her debut post, Momma Bear Is The Prepper, will be up next Wednesday. I’m excited to have her relatively unique perspective as the woman in the family being the ‘main‘ prepper. Prepping has traditionally been viewed as a male thing; men are the ones who ‘protect the cave’ (yes, I know I’m stereotyping). Since this is such a male-dominated community in general, and I’m a male, I am very happy to be able to present a female prepper’s point of view; not one who is just supporting her husband – but is motivating, guiding, and directing it.

Also new this week – A Contest! We’re giving away a signed copy of The Doom and Bloom Survival Medicine Handbook! After the great response to my post reviewing The Doom and Bloom Survival Medicine Handbook, Dr. Bones and Nurse Amy contacted me and asked if I would like a copy of their book to give away to my readers. I immediately responded in the affirmative and requested an autographed one (which they humbly agreed to). So, since I’ve never done a give-away contest before, Sarah and I brainstormed how to do it. Here’s what we came up with: If you’d like to win the book, comment–on this post, or on the TraceMyPreps facebook page–and tell us what your biggest concern MEDICALLY is in a collapse.

You have until 8:00pm PST this Sunday (2/12/12) to respond. From the respondents we’ll randomly choose a name. The winner’s name (first name, or log-in name, only) will be posted on our facebook page at that time; I’ll then coordinate with the winner to get the book mailed. Hopefully this’ll all work… Since this is our first give away, and we have a relatively small audience, if you post something you’ll have a pretty good chance to win.

As Sarah mentioned in her post, I’ve located a source to get donkey manure to fertilize our garden. My boss’ landlord has donkeys and is happy to give away the manure. He bags it up in approximately 4-gallon heavy duty bags, and just asks that the bags be returned. Yesterday, after work, I picked up 11 bags and brought them home. It was interesting, in my little commuter car full of donkey manure, there was no odor – just a faint smell of dirt. I did a little bit of research and it appears that the basic consensus (here’s where WSU Extension discusses it) is that fresh manure is perfectly safe to be added directly to the garden soil. However, it should be added using the following guidelines: 120 days before root crops (food that comes into contacted with the soil) are harvested, or 90 days, if the food does not have direct contact with the soil. I hope to get many more bags and cover the entire garden area front and back.

What did you do this week to prep?

(Monday: Teaching The Kids: Chainsaws For Everyone)

What I Did This Week To Prep 2/3/12

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Reading, and writing my review of, The Doom and Bloom Survival Medicine Handbook this week took a lot of my time, so not as much other stuff got done.

Sarah and I did do a fair amount behind the scenes on the the blog site itself. Sarah does the technical side and I handle the personal networking aspects. Is this a prepper topic though? I believe it is – especially since our blog is about prepping. But any blog you write allows you to teach and learn; it also may have the potential to develop into a business and/or give you more personal independence. Sarah upgraded us from WordPress.COM to WordPress.ORG. WordPress.org is the WordPress software that must be self-hosted (we went with Host Gator for that) but allows for greater flexibility and expansion potential. I’ve been corresponding more with people in the online prepper community; strengthening relationships and starting new ones. We’re also bringing on a new monthly contributor to our blog (more on her next week). Along those same lines, we’re considering having a (different) guest blogger write a post for us each month. So if you–or anyone you know–are interested, send me an email or facebook message (my contact information can be found on the About Trace page).

Last month I wrote a post on the Gerber EAB Lite Utility Knife. There has been discussion on TSP Forum where several people complained about the clip easily breaking off the knife. I’ve carried mine, clipped to my pocket everyday, for several months now without any issues. But just to do some follow-up, I contacted Gerber’s Warranty Department (by email). I told them we have several EABs and expressed my concern about the clip weakness, and asked them for a couple extra clips to keep on hand. They, no questions or hassles, sent me three replacement clips – no charge for shipping or anything. In summary, it’s a good little knife, good customer service experience, and I haven’t had any issues with the clip.

Finally, after reading the Doom and Bloom book, I decided we need to continue actively working on our medical preps. Because of my background, knowledge, and willingness, I’m sure one of my primary roles in a collapse will be as the medic. I believe I need to do as much as I can now to prepare for that role. So, coincidentally, last week on the Doom and Bloom blog, Dr. Bones wrote, Over The Counter Drugs When You’re the Doctor, that included a thorough list of OTC drugs to stock up on. This week he wrote, Must Have Antibiotics, Antifungals, and Antivirals. So, we’ve earmarked some money for additional fish antibiotics (Antibiotics In Your Preps) and are going to stock up on more OTC meds when we go to Costco. How much is too much? Tough call. But they store for a long, long time (Expired, or Not Expired… That is the Question), they’re relatively cheap, they don’t take too much space to store and–in a collapse–they’re irreplaceable.

What did you do?

(Monday: Book Review: Where There Is No Doctor)