SCP Survival

Best Survival Gear and Supplies

Using Our Portable Woodmizer Sawmill To Make Extra Money

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Woodmizer Sawmill

About 6 months ago, my brother-in-law, who had retired and moved back home, called and said, “Guess what? I just purchased a one man saw mill on Craig’s List for a song, you need to see this.“

He said he had always wanted one to play with and use more as a hobby than anything else. He ask if I would help him move it to the farm, and help in setting it up, repairing or replacing parts, and cut a few trees in order to learn how to operate it.  I couldn’t wait to see it.

The picture is the finished project, set up, and ready to go. Note the wheels have been removed in our set up.

I was hooked. Neither of us had any experience in operating a one-man saw mill. Fortunately he had been studying the manual, looking at YouTube videos, and talking to the customer service rep at the manufacturer. I was mostly the helper.

As we were setting up the mill and cutting trees for practice, we talked about how we might recoup some cost with “our” new hobby.

Here are a few facts and figures:

  • Cost: including repairs and transportation- Less than $3,500. This particular mill (WoodMizer) had been used very little and was in excellent condition. We have found similar mills selling for more than twice that amount, when you can find them. New Wood-Mizer mill that replaced the model you see pictured is around $11,500. That is the basic cost, not including transportation. Granted, the mill my brother-in-law bought was an older model, and the newer ones come with some features that his doesn’t have.
  • Production: This mill is capable of producing approximately 500 to 600 board feet per hour. I need to add some qualifiers to this statement. The key words are: “Is capable”.  After all, I don’t expect we could last very long at that rate. A more sensible rate might be 200 bf/hr. It would also depend on the dimensions of lumber you are cutting. It is much easier to cut 4”x4”, or 6”x6” timber than a bunch of 2”x4”, s. plus the board feet add up much quicker with large dimension lumber.
  • Pricing: In our area it ranges between $150-$250 per thousand board feet, depending on dimensions, quantity, and whether the logs are delivered to the mill or we pick them up.
  • Demand: The demand seems to be consistent to strong. As we were in the process of setting up the mill, we had several people ask us if we were ready to accept orders. One person even wanted several thousand board feet processed. Unfortunately, we were not ready, and winter has put a halt to much logging and milling in this area; mostly due to prolonged days of rain and cold weather.
  • Rate of return: Thinking reasonably, we could expect to gross approximately $300-$500 per week. That would be working approximately 4-5 hours a day, 3-4 days per week. That depends on several things, some of which are: Demand, breakdowns, weather, and yes even our stamina, sawmilling is very labor intensive and hard physical work.
  • Added value: There are some additional values associated with sawmilling. Items you can sell or barter are: the slabs and excess pieces for firewood and the accumulated sawdust for mulch.

Here is a link to a Wood-Mizer video showing the operation of a band-saw mill.

I will try and keep you updated on our new venture. Just to get you thinking, have you ever considered that the following could be extra money makers:

  • House sitting for people going on vacations
  • taking care of pets
  • breeding dogs, cats or other animals
  • teaching various folk-art crafts such as knitting, metal working or hand forging, and pottery making
  • teaching firearms training and safety
  • free-lance writing or photo journalism
  • taking care of the elderly
  • teach people a musical instrument skill you may have
  • gather and sell firewood
  • training people how to care for and ride horses.

You can see this list could be expanded to whatever your imagination may conjure up. If you are having trouble thinking of something, look in the classified section of your paper under services needed, Also, Craigslist is a good place to look.

35 Prepper Projects To Tackle This Year

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Make this the year you get better prepared.  Here are 35 projects to launch you into action.  Each is low budget; some require nothing more than your time.  Most require no more than a weekend to complete.

  1. Get organized! Begin a 3-ring binder to organize notes; this will be your Emergency Binder. Use it to consolidate your preparations, notes and lists in one place.
  2. Research on Google Earth the area around your house. Get to know your danger areas. Where are the “choke points” for escape via automobile? Where are the natural water supplies? Where are the risks? Make notes for your Emergency Binder.
  3. Using Google Earth, find three different routes from work to home, from home to your safe place and other places you may need to travel. (Pick up children from school, etc.) Identify possible problem areas. Update your Binder
  4. Buy a detailed laminated paper map of your city and county. Store in your binder.
  5. Begin to accumulate $200 in 1-dollar bills. Store in your waterproof, fireproof, secret compartment place in your home. When able, increase to $500.
  6. Scan your personal documents and copy to a thumb drive. Store the thumb drive in a safe place. Include social security cards, passports, birth, driver’s license, marriage, divorce decrees, insurance and title documents, deeds and contracts, bank account numbers and charge cards, (including lost or stolen notification numbers), stocks and bonds, wills, medical information, prescriptions, etc. If you have some survival books or guides on your computer, you can also include a few of these on that thumb drive as well.
  7. Scan head-and-shoulder photos of each family member. Save to your thumb drive. Print a copy for your Emergency Binder. If family becomes separated, a recent photo may help.
  8. Video or scan still photos of your home contents. When disaster strikes, having a home inventory will help with insurance claims. Copy to your thumb drive.
  9. Start saving plastic 2-liter pop bottles (not milk jugs, they decompose). Sanitize and fill 1 with ¾ with water. Use it to fill any empty space in your freezer. If your electric fails, this ice jug will help keep food preserved in the freezer as well as being a source of drinking water. If space permits, have a least 1 2-liter bottle in the freezer per person.
  10. Ask friends and family members to save soda bottles for you. Lie about your intentions, (tell them it’s a school project for little Johnny). Sanitize the bottle, lid and threads. Fill with tap water. Your goal is to accumulate 30 bottles per family member and large pet. You can also use soda bottles for fishing.
  11. Prepare a “Car” 72-hour emergency bag.  Think Shelter, Water, Fire, & Food.  Pack into a backpack.  Store it in your car.  Revise it with the change in seasons.
  12. Store survival bars in your emergency bags.
  13. Catch up on immunizations, dental and medical procedures.  Invest in your family’s health.
  14. Learn to shut off your home’s water, electric, and natural gas.  Teach your spouse and children.
  15. Replace those exterior door hinge screws with 3” screws, reinforce the door jamb and add deadbolts with at least a 1” throw.  Add pins to casement windows.
  16. Update exterior lighting around your home, garage and out buildings.  These should be solar, motion-detected security lights. Mount high up so that vandals can’t reach.  Stock extra light bulbs.
  17. Check the status of your fire extinguisher, fire alarms and Carbon Monoxide Alarm (battery powered) with each spring time change.  Stockpile 1 extra battery for each alarm
  18. Buy and mount an axe in your attic.  In the flood plains, if you retreat to your attic, you need a way to cut through your roof as a means to escape.
  19. Get on the other side of the law by joining your local Sheriff’s auxiliary, search and rescue, joining your local CERT (Civilian Emergency Response Team), or getting licensed for Armed Private Security in your state. None of these are guaranteed to give you a pass when you’re dealing with an Orwellian law enforcement official, but they will improve your odds considerably
  20. Make some dryer lint fire starters.
  21. Build a heater out of a candle and some terra cotta pots.
  22. Make a candle from a tub of Crisco.
  23. Earthquake proof your home and food storage shelving.  See the post at Prepared LDS Family for some great ideas and be sure to scroll down into the comment section as well.
  24. Get in your food storage room and do an inventory or some organizing
  25. Protect your electronics with your own homemade metal trash can faraday cage.
  26. In a multi-car family, one vehicle will probably sit during a crisis.  Consider long-term storage (longer than 6 months) and determine your auto’s needs.
  27. Committing to reading one homesteading or self-sufficiency type book each month for the next year.  Search for free books on Amazon.com for Kindle“Camp out” in your backyard with your family.
  28. Find out what you don’t know about living off the grid for 1 weekend. No matter what the weather, deal with it. Pitch the tent, sleep in sleeping bags, eat from can foods.
  29. Harden the garage door with reinforced tracks.  Supplement glass with Lexan, Plexiglas or security film mounted inside. Decide where is best to park the un-needed vehicle – in the garage?  Used as a barrier on the property?  Hidden and camouflaged?
  30. Check oil and coolant. Drain or add anti freeze to windshield wash reservoir. Remove anything that will mold, rot or mildew.  Anything that will attract rodents to nest. Jack it up or sit it on concrete blocks to keep tires from developing flat spots.
  31. Disconnect the fuel pump and run the car until it quits to drain fuels from the engine lines. Insert steel wool in the tailpipe to prevent rodents from nesting in the exhaust system. Place several rodent traps in the engine compartment.
  32. Do not engage parking brake as the pads may become fused. Remove battery and cover
  33. Plant prickly bushes under windows to deter vandalism.  Consider other ways to use landscaping to your security advantage.
  34. Power tools don’t operate without electricity, pre-cut ¾” plywood to cover all first floor windows.  Especially in hurricane/tornado areas.  Pre-drill holes so that you can install plywood easily.  I was more worried about looters so I chose to make chain-link panels for my windows.  They store flat, and can be handled/installed by one person.  I can see out the window and it protects my window from a Molotov cocktail.  Sure, there are better options, but this is cheap and you can accomplish it immediately while you research other options
  35. Find 10 survival-type recipes that your family likes – 10 breakfasts, lunches and dinners.  Ingredients must be all shelf-stable foods. Stockpile enough ingredients to make each recipe 3 times and you have 30 days of food storage.

Car Inverters Are Perfect for Emergency Power

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Generators are expensive, and for most routine “short” emergencies they are actually not necessary. Utility companies have power restored in 2 to 3 days in most cases.

But, how do we keep the babies fed and safe in the meantime? Use your automobile. Or more specifically, use your automobile’s battery.

Here’s how to do it:

All you need is a car inverter.  There are two ways to hook it up and depending on which way you hook it up will depend on which inverter you want to buy.

1) Plug it into your cigarette lighter. Check your car to see if the 12-volt power outlet (cigarette lighter) is ON, even without the key being on.  Just plug something in and see if it comes on.   If your outlet is ON even when the key is off, then you can plug an inverter into yourpower outlet.

I like the Bestek 150 inverter because it has two USB outputs in addition to the AC outlet. One USB is 2.1 amps for charging iPads and smart phones.

Plug the inverter into the car’s cigarette lighter outlet.  Plug an extension cord into the inverter and run the extension cord inside the house.  Then you can plug a few lights or small appliances into the extension cord. WARNING – do not attempt to plug in an air conditioner, or microwave or fridge or freezer.  I said SMALL appliances.

The limit to your available power is the maximum output of your cigarette lighter.  Don’t risk blowing circuit breakers or damaging your car’s electrical system.

2)  Plug directly into your car’s battery.  If your car’s 12-volt outlet is not always ON, then you will need a battery clip in addition to an inverter.  You can also use this type of hook up if you wish to use a larger inverter than your cigarette lighter can handle.

Open the hood and attach the clip directly onto the car battery. Red on red; black on black. I have a Roadpro Battery Clip.  Plug the inverter into the cigarette lighter outlet on the clip. Run an extension cord inside the house.

There is an added benefit of using the battery clip and that is that you can use a more powerful inverter like the Duracell 800-watt.  This runs at 150 watts through the cigarette lighter or 800 watts when clamped on the battery.

About your extension cord.  Use a good heavy-duty shop or garage cord, not those little flimsy things we use to extend a table lamp.  Look for one with a power strip built in.

Look for an inverter with a usage-display.  Monitor your usage, DON’T run your battery down. You may have to idle the car from time to time to recharge the battery.  DON’T idle the car in an enclosed garage. Be smart.

OK, so now you have power inside your house, what can you do with it?

Most people first want light.  Let’s start there.  Preserve your battery power by using a low watt LED light bulb.  The 2-watt provides nice overall room illumination, but the 7-watt is better for working, cooking or reading.  So get a few different bulbs.  I got a large pack at SAM’S Club at a reasonable price.

Make the low watt bulb brighter by installing it into a shop light with a metal reflector.

Of course, you can run a battery charger for your flashlight batteries and numerous other SMALL appliances.

I keep all of my emergency power parts in a plastic bin in the garage, near the front of the car, so everything is together when I need it.  If the power is out, I don’t need to be tripping thru the house looking for parts and pieces.

Last winter when we lost power I used my car battery to run one 7-watt light bulb, an electric hot plate to make hot meals, the coffee pot, to charge my iPad and to keep my flashlights charged up.  It was just enough to get us by for a short spell. We weren’t uncomfortable or too inconvenienced.

This Christmas, my husband bought me a portable ice making machine. Using the 800-watt inverter, I can make 28 lbs of ice a day then put it in my freezer or cooler.  It will be a luxury to have cold beverages if the power goes out this summer, but it can also be used for first aid treatment or to keep medicines cold.  Next, I hope to find an efficient bread machine.

A power usage monitor like the P3 Kill A Watt allows you to know how much power an appliance is using.   You plug the appliance into the monitor and plug the monitor into the house outlet and read the power usage.  Search YouTube, to find several videos that feature the Kill A Watt family.

Start paying attention to the power usage of your favorite appliances and if they are power hogs, consider updating them with newer, more efficient models.

In summary, for less than $60 (a battery clip, 800-watt inverter and a low watt LED bulb) you can have emergency power – right now, without the expense of a generator.  Then as resources allow, keep adding additional low watt small appliances that add safety and value to your family.

A Book for Midwives – Free PDF Download

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What follows is a FREE downloadable PDF on midwifery, which is very related to preparedness. More preparedness files are available on our survival PDFs download (currently over 906). Document Name: A Book for Midwives – Care for pregnancy, birth, and women’s health Topic: Midwifery Books (Health and Medical)
Summary: This latest edition includes new information on helping women stay healthy during pregnancy; helping mothers have safer labors and births; preventing, managing, and treating obstetric emergencies; breastfeeding; the health needs of new babies; and involving the community in improving the health of mothers and pregnant women. It also includes new information about treatment and medications for HIV and other STIs; vaccinations, medicines, and drug interactions; infection prevention; improved methods for dealing with complicated deliveries; and on family planning. Click here to download the file.

Learning From Old Timers

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The man you see in the picture is Ted Hicks, son of Ray Hicks, who was considered the last of the old time story tellers. The other picture is the view from his back porch. I had the pleasure of meeting Ted when we lived in the “High Country” near Boone, NC, and I worked for the public transportation system for Watauga County, NC.

On my frequent trips to pick up Ted and carry him to the doctor’s, he fascinated me with the old stories his dad taught him over the years before he died; stories of the mountain people who lived in this region and the old time “Jack Tales”. He told me how his dad and his mother taught him how to look for certain herbs and plants, and how to use them, how to hunt, how to survive the harsh winters, how to plant gardens on those steep slopes, what would grow, and what would not. He spoke with that old mountain brogue which took me some time to understand, but when I finally mastered the language, I was even more fascinated with the stories.

At the time these pictures were taken, Ted lived with his mother in the house you see, which is high up on Beach Mountain. This is also where he was born. They heated and cooked with wood, and only got indoor plumbing a few years prior to this photo. Life on these mountains is tough, and the winters are even harder.

Ted told the following story which you would think was right out of a survival book. One winter day when he was just a young boy, he and his two sisters and brother were in the old one room school house, when the winter snow which had begun early that morning, turned into a blizzard. The snow was accumulating at a frightening pace, the temperature was dropping, and the winds were howling. Since most of the children lived several miles from the school house, and all walked to and from school, the teacher let the children out early and told them to go straight home.

Their dad had always told them, “If you get caught out in one of them “howlers”, stay on the road as best as you can and look for the tops of the fence post to guide you. Don’t take any shortcuts, even though it might be a shorter distance.”

Ted said, “Well, I thought I knew these mountains pretty good, and the snow was almost to the top of some of the posts, so I told my brothers and sisters to follow me, I knew a better way.” He said they told me, “You know what Paw told us, follow the fence post, we aint going with you.”

Ted said, “I bet I’ll beat you home,” and off he went by himself. After an hour, Ted said everything looked the same, the snow was 4-5 feet in places, he didn’t recognize any landmarks, it was really cold, the wind had increased, and he was lost. Ted told me, about this time he was thinking, “I sure wish I had done what Paw told me to do.”

Well, the story did have a happy ending, as he was very close to his Grandparents’ cabin, and he smelled the smoke from the chimney, he said he struggled to get there, and arrived on their doorsteps half frozen. Ted said “God was a looking out for me that night.”

He spent the night with them, and most of the next day. His Granddad took him home the next evening after the storm had quit. He said, “I expected my Paw to get his switch and give me a good spanking, but he guessed they was so glad to see me alive, my adventure was lesson enough.” Ted said there have been many storms since then, and, “I always look for them fence posts.”

As I got to know Ted and his family, I fell in love with them and their simplistic life style, and most of all the tenderness of their hearts. They would do almost anything to help you if they could. I realize now that they were “preppers” by many of our definitions, but they would not have called it that. I think they would say that they had to have food stored in the root cellar if they wanted to eat during the long winters.

They would have to have the firewood cut and stored, and stove wood cut all the time. The kids listened to the stories their parents, grandparents, aunts, and uncles told around the fireplace in the evenings and learned how to live and survive in those hard mountains. Ted told me those were some of his favorite times growing up, and in many cases, where he learned so much.

The point is, we all have a natural resource available to us as “preppers”, that being the knowledge of our elders, and maybe just a friend who has a skill that is needed.

Unfortunately, most people in today’s culture do not want to take the time to sit and listen to those with this wealth of knowledge. They would rather watch something on YouTube, or Google a subject on the internet. These can be excellent resources, but you really need to do your research to trust some of the information you get. Please don’t misunderstand what I am saying, much of the modern technology is great, and makes our lives much easier.

However with that said, what happens when we don’t have our smart phone or iPad due to a natural disaster such as the recent hurricane that hit the East Coast and North Eastern section of our country?

Many of you reading this article have the type of knowledge I am talking about. I believe one of our greatest challenges as “Seasoned Preppers” is to find out how to give this knowledge to the younger generations. We are so close to losing so much knowledge about our heritage and our history that it is scary. Have you looked at some of the new history books our children are being taught these days?

On a personal note, I found out rather quickly that if I wanted to talk, I should say communicate, to our children, and especially our grandchildren, I had to learn to text message. That was, and still is a challenge for me. But at least we had some good family talk time as most of our children and grandchildren were home for the holidays.

Plumbing Leaks and Emergency Water Shutoff

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How To Shutoff Your Water Main Valve in an Emergency

Do you know where your water main box is located? If not, you just might want to locate it before Murphy is in the neighborhood.

I want to relate an incident that happened to my wife and me several months ago. As a former Boy Scout and prepper, I have always tried to adhere to the Boy Scout’s motto: “Be Prepared”. But, as I discovered, it is easy to say you are prepared, but quite another to actually be prepared.

We have our beans, Band-Aids, and bullets. We try to go by the rule of one is none, two is one, and three is better. In other words have a plan B and C. We have tried to prepare our home for emergencies that may arise, have the necessary tools on hand to fix minor repairs, the list could go on, but I think you get the idea. I’m sure most of you who are reading this article have made similar preparations, and may be thinking: so what’s the big deal. At this point, I need to mention another rule that all preppers’ need to be aware of, but often forget. It’s called “Murphy’s Law–Anything that can go wrong will go wrong”.

Have you ever noticed that plumbing leaks always happen at night? Or on the week-end? When the hardware store has closed, and you can’t find, or don’t have the right tool? Or maybe all of the above?!

Now I realize that it is almost impossible for most of us to be totally prepared for everything, but in my case, I thought I had all the bases covered. Let me give the reader a little history. We live in an old house, built in the early 50’s, and we live in the country. A trip to the store of any kind is a minimum of 30-45 minutes, one way.

When we first moved here we added a new bedroom and bath, and did a lot of renovations and repairs. At that time I installed new stainless steel supply lines to all the sinks in the bathrooms, and to the washing machine; all with cut-off valves. I also had spare supply lines in my plumbing supplies, and all the tools I thought I would need. Can you guess which one I forgot to replace? Yep! You guessed it, the water heater.

I am not the handy man that I would like to be, but plumbing has always been one of the things that I have been able to do most of the time, so when my wife said one evening about 9:00 p.m., “Where is all this water coming from in our bathroom?” My first thought was I’ll just cut the water off under the sink with the cut-off valves I had installed, and finish fixing the problem in the morning.

Here is where “Murphy’s Law” kicked in. When I walked into the bathroom, she was standing in water, it was spreading fast, and to my surprise, the leak was not coming from under the sink as I had thought, but was coming from a closet where the water heater was located.

I opened the closet door, and was immediately sprayed with warm water bouncing off everything in the closet. The leak was coming from the supply line that connected the water heater to the house plumbing system. To my dismay, no cut-off valve, not a problem, I would go out to the garage, get my water key, and go to the water meter box located in the front yard and cut the water off to the house.

By this time she was pleading “Please hurry; I’m running out of dry towels.” I ran out to the garage and looked at where the water key was supposed to be hanging; you guessed right again, no water key. I had forgotten that I had loaned my water key to my brother-in-law for a plumbing problem he had. Not to worry, I ran next door to my wife’s parents and asked to borrow their water key. Fortunately, they were still up, and to my surprise they knew exactly where it was. By the time I got back to the house and turned off the water, she had run out of towels and all she could think to say was: “What took you so long?”

After we cleaned up all the mess, we took stock of everything. There was no real water damage, we both thanked God for that. We could just picture what would have happened if we had gone to bed and found the leak the next morning. We did have drinking water stored, so we could have coffee the next morning, and I could go to the hardware store to get the necessary supplies. This time I would replace both the inlet and outlet lines with new stainless steel supply lines with cutoff valves.

The next morning, after finally getting everything replaced and checked for leaks, we were back in the hot water business. I would like to say it was an easy repair, and things went like clock- work; but remember Murphy’s Law? The big issue was the one pipe wrench I thought I had in my tool box, wasn’t there. I had to get a new one.

Some lessons learned, and some advice for all preppers.

  • Check all water supply lines in your house. If they are suspect, replace them with stainless flexible lines.
  • Have cut-off valves installed on all supply lines.
  • Get a water key; know where it is at all times.
  • Inventory your tools to make sure you have what you will need.
  • You don’t have to have a water key to turn off the water at your water main, but they are cheap, and it is so much easier than using a wrench or vise grips, especially when it is raining, which I forgot to mention, and the water main box is full of water, which it was, and it was night time.

Be Prepared!