The Beautiful Mrs. Ray helped me by reviewing Prepper Pete Prepares. I love the idea of a children’s book to help explain preparedness to kids.
 
Review of Prepper Pete Prepares

The author, Kermit Jones, Jr., created this book to help explain preparedness to his young daughters. In my mind, that he is a father of daughters lends itself to his credibility. He knows the hearts and minds of his own children and knows what will and will not scare them.

The book represents an “ant man” who decides he wants to be prepared from an early age. It discusses reasons and ways to prepare without getting into the great detail that can sometimes alarm children. The illustrations are fun and depict a family setting that is calm and collected, even though there are emergency situations going on around them, because they are prepared!

Trudee’s Take: I would recommend this book for parents with young children. I would, however, recommend reading it to them until they’re a little older. Some of the content may require further explanation, as children are such sponges with information and are, in general, extremely curious about things. There are pictures of guns in the book, for instance, and to mitigate fear or misunderstanding, this would be a perfect opportunity to explain your personal stance on guns, whether you’re for them or against them.

All in all, this is great children’s book that provides parents a non-threatening way to explain what they do to help keep their family safe without creating fear. In my opinion, an empowered child is a safe child, and giving them knowledge empowers them!

 
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Earlier this year, I purchased the Howard Leight Impact Sport Electronic Earmuff
and have used them a few times. I thought I would do a quick review on them. This was my first pair of electronic muffs, but I was going to take some training and wanted to make sure I could hear the instructor.

 
The Specs:

•External audio input connects to MP3 players and scanners
•Amplifies conversation and commands with one single volume control knob
•Automatic 4 hour shut-off increases battery life
•Automatically blocks noise above 82 dB, noise reduction rating: NRR 22
•Adjustable, low-profile design folds for easy storage

 
My Take:

There were fifteen people on the line when I took my course. At times, the head trainer was 20+ feet away. I could hear him better than if he was standing right next to me without the muffs. That might be a bit of a stretch, but only a bit. With the volume control, you can amplify things as little or as much as you want. If you don’t want to use the amplification, they work just like a normal pair of muffs would.

There were a few other people in the class who had the same model, so I asked what they thought. One gentleman said he loves them, that he also takes a rifle class and there are other brands that stick out further and make it so you can’t get the rifle snug. Everyone liked them quite a bit!

The speakers also work in stereo, so while the instructor was walking behind us, we could tell where he was.

There was only one guy in the class that didn’t have some form of electronic ear protection. He had to ask for directions to be repeated several times. Someone let him try theirs, and I bet he purchased a pair as soon as he got home.

If you take any form of firearms training, I can’t recommend these highly enough! Even if you don’t take any firearms training these could still be a huge blessing.

According to the website Hearing Aid Know , here are the decibel levels of some common sounds:

Fireworks (140)
Snowmobile (120)
Chain saw (110)
Amplified music (110)
Lawn mower (90)
Noisy office (90)
Vacuum cleaner (80)
City traffic (80)

Keep in mind that it will limit these sounds but that you’ll also be able to hear if someone is trying to get your attention, as their voice will be amplified.

With a price of only $45.99 from Amazon, well, like I said, I can’t recommend these highly enough and give them 5 stars!

 
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I just wanted to give you a quick update on the Ultimate Survival Bundle, they have now added as a free bonus the 11-in-1 Survival Tool!

The 11 uses are:
can opener, knife edge, screwdriver, ruler, bottle cap opener, 4-position wrench, wingnut wrench, saw blade, direction ancillary indicator, 2 position wrench, and keychain hole.

This is only available to US residents only.

Those of you who’ve already purchased will be contacted to get your address to be sent one as well.

If you have not purchased one yet, remember that the Ultimate Survival Bundle ends on Monday.

By Jerry Wood

I was approached by author Jerry Wood some time ago about reviewing a book called Discovery to Catastrophe. I owe Mr. Wood an apology. With the many turns life has taken in the last year, my recreational reading time was minimal and it took me much longer than I had hoped to finish the book; for that, Mr. Wood, I apologize.

The book initially follows one family and, later, multiple families who form a house church. Latter still, they join with a small church, as they research the tribulation, and prepare for what may come. There are several scriptures provided on end times study, that are meshed well into the story line.

This is the first Christian prepper fiction book I have read and I enjoyed seeing scripture mentioned. I also enjoyed seeing how a Christian MAG worked together. It reminded me of Acts 2 and how the first church worked and formed community.

I don’t want to give any more of the story away, but I will just say this; I pray we never see a catastrophe like the one in this book.

One of the downsides of having such a large cast of characters like this book has is a lack of character development. Because I enjoyed the development of the MAG and watching how they each blessed the group with their research and work, I don’t know that I would say that the lack of character development is a negative. It works well in this case.

With the decisions and actions being God-based and the focus on a large preparedness-based community, this definitely isn’t the average prepper novel. If the book sounds interesting I hope you will read it.

 
I am going to leave the comment section open, for now. There was an article last week that started some pre-trib – post-trib conversation, and I put an end to it. For some reason this topic gets people riled up. On another forum, I had my faith questioned because of my belief. I have a couple important things I want to say.

This is not a salvation issue.

No matter your belief on the subject, you are talking to a son or daughter of God, so speak to them with respect and humility.

I don’t care if you believe pre, mid or post. If you have not thoroughly studied the subject, you should. If you believe in one position because it is what you were taught as a child and you always accepted it as truth, try to look into this from a neutral point of view.

As I mentioned, I’ll allow comments for now. You can say something about your position, but as I stated above, keep it respectful. I don’t want to see any arguing or telling someone else they’re wrong. If I see that, I’ll just delete your comment.

 
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Total Home Prep Now $29.95

I was recently sent a DVD called Total Home Prep Now, which I watched and am going to give you my thoughts on.

From the DVD jacket:

“In just over one hour our exclusive DVD course will teach you everything you want and need to know about getting prepared. No fluff here just practical, easy to follow, step by step video lessons that will get you prepared faster than any other product on the market.”

 
Overall Video

The video is very well made.  Both presenters do a good job and the camera work was good as well.  They were able to squeeze a lot of information in just over an hour.  One thing I like is that they tell you what to search the Internet for to get more information on different subjects.  If they wanted to go in depth on all of the aspects of preparedness they would need to make this a series of DVD’s.  Listed below are the subjects they covered and my thoughts on them.

Food

They do a really good job on this section; how to go about starting a pantry, explaining the two main rules of food storage and the enemies of food storage.

Some food staples are listed and they list expected shelf life.  They also explain what the shelf life is with and without storing things in Mylar with an oxygen absorber.

They do a great job of explaining how to store food in metal lined bags (Mylar), and cover some of the problems I ran into in the beginning.  Over the years, I have watched a fair number of videos of people putting up food for long term storage.  This was one of the better ones.

They used a bath canner and stored apples in jars.  They explained the entire process of blanching and soaking the apple to prevent the color from changing.  They also used a pressure canner to store chicken.  I found this pretty interesting, as I haven’t ever canned meats.

Water

Gathering, treating and storing water is covered in pretty good detail.  Rain catchment and using a bathtub bladder are both covered.  They also show a clever idea on how to use a tarp and some poles to catch even more rain.

They explain some of the differences in water filters and bring up some points you should consider when looking for one.  They cover boiling water and how to store water in a 55 gallon drum.

House

This area covers topics like developing a family action plan, researching potential local threats, how to shut off your gas and electricity.

Sanitation

There are a few different ways listed to deal with sanitation.  I’m glad they covered this, as it is an area many people overlook.

Vehicle

Vehicle Prep covers some good info, including never letting your gas tank get below half and doing a vehicle once over, checking for problems with belts, tires and checking for leaks.

Do It Yourself

There are a fair amount of projects shown that you can do yourself.  Some of them are:

How to build your own water filter

How to put a spigot on a 55 gallon drum

How to grow sprouts

How to make a small cache out of PVC

How to dig a trench for a latrine

How to make a faraday cage

My Take

There were a few things that I disagree with them on, but on every one of them, they erred on the side of caution.  I also disagree that this DVD covers everything you’ll need to know, but it does cover some of the most important things.

This video would have saved me many hours of research in the beginning, and would be a great resource to anyone relatively new to prepping.  If you have been at preparedness for a few years, there are probably still some things you will learn, but you’re probably familiar with most of the content.

I usually base my rating system on how much value I feel I got out of the product.  I am going to give this DVD a rating from the stand point of someone who is relatively new to preparedness and not from the standpoint of someone who has a blog and talks about it.

As I mentioned above, this DVD would have saved me a lot of research on some of the most important aspects of preparedness.  I like that they gave some ideas for things to research if you want more information.  The DIY projects are an added bonus as well.

Because I think the DVD has a lot to offer to a newbie to preparedness, I give it four stars.

A quick note before today’s article:  There is still time to enter the contest to win one of the 11 gifts I highlighted in Twenty Great Gifts for Prepper’s. To do so, just sign up to receive updates on the left hand side of the blog and reply to any of the emails received, alerting you to a new update from Prepared Christian.  You have until Monday Morning, December 17^th, to enter.  I will be picking random winners and notifying them so that they can send me their mailing address.  I will have the items sent directly from Amazon to your home.

When Technology Fails and When Disaster Strikes

One of the seminars I went to during last year’s MSTEP (Minnesota Symposium on Terrorism and Emergency Preparedness) featured Mat Stein.  Mat is a graduate of Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) where he majored in Mechanical Engineering and is a best-selling author of two books called When Technology Fails and When Disaster Strikes.  Being the prepper nerd that I am, I had to see the talk Mat gave.  He opened with a similar version of the below, which is taken from the “about” page on his website Twenty Great Gifts for Prepper’s.

“It was a true epiphany that started Mat firmly on the path of self-reliance, emergency prep, and sustainability. Around Thanksgiving of 1997, during his morning session of prayer and meditation, in answer to a simple request for “guidance and inspiration”, Mat received a fully developed “story board” type of pictorial outline that popped into his head instantaneously. It was the outline for a massive handbook to help people be more self-reliant, live more sustainably, and prepare to weather the coming storms as we pass through this age of uncertainty and change. After three years of work, this “cosmic download” crystallized into his first book, When Technology Fails.”

Mat covered a wide variety of topics, many that I was already familiar with, some were brand new to me.  He spoke about things you might expect, such as threats we may face and why we should prepare, but went on to cover some things like using colloidal silver, tea tree oil and other natural methods.  This was actually the first time I had someone really explain colloidal silver, giving the history of it and an explanation on how to make your own colloidal silver generator.  He explains this in detail in the book When Technology Fails.

After the seminar, I waited in line to purchase both books and got a chance to chat with Mat for a few minutes.  I have since read some of his other writings and I listen to him on The Survival Podcast episodes Episode-795 and Episode-837.

Now Onto the Book Review

When Technology Fails

The first book Mat wrote was When Technology Fails.  It covers a wide variety of information. Keep in mind that it is written to be of use When Technology Fails.

Just a few of the areas he covers are: reasons for preparing, supplies one might need, water, food, shelter, as well as a large section on alternative holistic medicine.  He also covers topics such as metalworking, energy, and not-so-modern chemistry.  Some of those were the titles of the chapters, but the table of contents is five pages long.  In each of those areas he goes into detail on several different aspects of them.

As an example, the chapter “When High-Tech Medicine Fails” is 50 pages long.  It covers many different aspects of alternative healing, one being colloidal silver.  Mat explains many uses for colloidal silver, discusses his personal experience with it, and then explains how you can make your own colloidal silver generator, complete with a drawn diagram.

When Disaster Strikes

Mat’s second book When Disaster Strikes is broken up into three sections;

1. General Preparations
2. Emergency Medicine, Survival Skills and Tools
3. Specific Disasters and Crisis

The second book doesn’t have as much detail on the first two areas, but I think it goes into more detail on what the actual disasters will look like, explaining what to expect, what you can do before, during and after.

Final Thoughts

I have to admit that I have not read either of the books from cover to cover, but thumbed through them reading things that interested me.   There are a few books that I think belong on every Prepper’s bookshelf, these two are among them.  There is some overlap between the two, When Technology Fails has more technical data in it, and covers much that When Disaster Strikes does not.  However, When Disaster Strikes is updated and, as I mentioned, goes into more detail on the disasters themselves.  If you’re only going to buy one, I suggest When Technology Fails, because of the vast amount of information it contains.

There are Kindle versions available, but this is the kind of book you want around if the grid goes down so that you can reference all of the information.  This isn’t to say I think the book should collect dust until then.  It is a fantastic resource to use in planning your preparations.

I highly recommend these books.  I give When Technology Fails five stars and When Disaster Strikes four stars.  The difference between the two is the HUGE amount of information in When Technology Fails.

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