We are excited to announce some good news on the horizon!
The print issues of PREPARE Magazine will soon be found in major news-stand outlets, shops and racks across the globe! And to celebrate we want to give a life-time subscription away to one fortunate person.
You can easily enter the form below to rack up the points and win the prize.
By Guest Blogger: James McDonald
This is a compilation of options for improving your odds of having safer water when you do not trust the available water supply. Many of the ideas below were discussed with knowledgeable friends, but they are not FDA-approved instructions. Research these methods carefully and understand the directions before relying on them in an emergency.
You do not technically need to sterilize water. Sterilization means destroying all microorganisms in, on, and around an object. For drinking water, the practical goal is usually disinfection: reducing or killing pathogenic organisms that can cause disease.
Disinfection can be done through several methods, including filtration, heat, ozonation, and chemical treatment.
Despite many stories to the contrary, boiling water can disinfect it. At most elevations people are likely to encounter, the boiling point of water is high enough to kill or denature disease-causing organisms. A rolling boil is the key point.
Pasteurization kills disease-causing organisms in water by heating it to 65°C / 149°F for a short period of time. This can address microbes including E. coli, rotaviruses, Giardia, and the Hepatitis A virus.
A WAPI, or Water Pasteurization Indicator, uses heat-specific soy wax to help determine when water has reached pasteurization temperature. Some WAPI models include stainless steel cable and brass end caps designed to tolerate high heat, making them useful over an open flame or in solar cooking situations.
Filtration can be effective when the filter has an absolute rating of 0.2 microns or smaller. Some people use iodine crystals first and then filter the water afterward.
Chemical disinfection usually involves adding a chemical such as chlorine or iodine to the water. It is often quick, economical, and effective when the correct chemical, concentration, and contact time are used.
Regular liquid bleach is not stable indefinitely. It gradually breaks down and may become ineffective over time. Bleach that is roughly one year old may require a stronger dose, while bleach near two years old may no longer be reliable.
Calcium hypochlorite, often sold as pool shock, can store much longer in dry form than liquid bleach. It can be mixed into a fresh chlorine solution as needed.
Use only granular pool shock that lists calcium hypochlorite as the active ingredient and does not include algaecides, fungicides, scents, softeners, or other additives that may be unsafe for drinking water treatment.
In an extremely well-ventilated area, preferably outside, dissolve one heaping teaspoon of high-test granular calcium hypochlorite, approximately 1/4 ounce, into two gallons of water. This produces a stock chlorine solution.
To disinfect water, add one part of this chlorine solution to 100 parts water. A practical small-batch version is to add about 2.5 tablespoons of the stock solution to one gallon of water. Mix thoroughly, cover, and allow it to stand for 30 minutes.
The treated water should have a slight chlorine odor. If it does not, repeat the dosage and allow it to stand for an additional 15 minutes. If the chlorine taste is too strong, let the water stand exposed to air for a few hours or pour it between clean containers several times.
Water from open sources should be treated before use. One practical approach is a three-step process.
Iodine is not emphasized here because many references point to limited shelf life, specific storage requirements, and undesirable taste. Chlorine odor can indicate some remaining disinfectant level, and the odor can dissipate with aeration.
James McDonald has enjoyed camping and many aspects of outdoor life. His engineering background has encouraged him to keep digging into practical problems until they make sense.
PREPARE Magazine Disclaimer: These statements are not intended as a fail-proof guide or FDA-approved water sanitation method. They are a compilation of internet-sourced information presented in plain language. Research carefully and use these suggestions at your own risk.
The fastest way to improve Drinking Water Background is to simplify the process and control one variable at a time. Start with the most important baseline: define the goal, identify the main failure point, and test one change before making another. Keep short notes so you can connect the outcome to the adjustment you made. This prevents guesswork and helps you build a repeatable method instead of chasing random fixes.
Check the most immediate bottlenecks first: setup errors, missing inputs, bad timing, or inconsistent follow-through. Before buying anything new or changing the whole system, confirm that the basics are being done correctly and consistently. A small diagnostic checklist usually reveals the real problem faster than broad trial and error. Once the weak point is clear, make one correction and watch the result before adjusting anything else.
The most common mistakes are changing too many variables at once, skipping the basics, and judging results too quickly. Many people also copy generic advice without adapting it to their exact situation, which leads to weak results and confusion. A better approach is to work from a simple baseline, make measured changes, and give each change enough time to show whether it helped. That makes progress easier to track and repeat.
Far too often children become either frightened and bewildered or left out while adult family members plan and prepare in hopes of securing their future. Jake & Miller’s Big Adventure: A Prepper’s Book for Kids not only encourages children to help but also helps the parents and grandparents alike to emphasis the fun and adventure in prepping!
This uplifting story is written from the perspective of both the somewhat nervous dog, Miller and his owner ,Jake. Jake leads the way with Miller happily along the trail as they prepare for a variety of adventures! Their day-dreaming take them far, but that’s okay because this helps them to better plan for what may lie ahead. From bug spray to water, Jake and Miller are prepared for just about everything. And don’t forget that important can opener! Food is on Miller’s mind a lot!
Jake & Miller’s Big Adventure: A Prepper’s Book for Kids is an easy to read book, short enough for elementary school age children to get through, but it’s also the right length to be a great read-a-loud as a bed time or nap time story. With the artwork and kid empowering impact, we feel pretty sure this might even become a great show-and-tell book for school! How cool is that? Your kids can help inspire others!
The author, Bernie Carr (Author of the national best seller: The Prepper’s Pocket Guide: 101 Easy Things You Can Do to Ready Your Home for a Disaster
This book can be a good tool to share your lifestyle with the children you’re blessed to have in it…with out scary gas masks and tension. Isn’t that what we want to do with our children anyway? Calm their fears, equip them to be well prepared and all the while, not forget that there is join in this journey!
CLICK HERE – to listen to a recent radio show that Donna Miller had with the author of this book!
Below is the entry for for this giveaway. This is a very Pinteresting Week for our giveaway so be prepared to copy/paste a bit!
Keep checking back each week for another great book review and giveaway! Or… LIKE us on Facebook and get notices there as a new book comes up to win!
By Guest Blogger: Lee Flynn
The predominant culture often views those who value disaster preparedness as fanatical and irrational. Their predictions may sometimes sound apocalyptic; their preparations, drastic. The idea of an implosion of the national infrastructure and financial system simply strikes some as the stuff of fantasy. An honest look at the numbers, however, reveals that survival planning is actually a wise and prudent endeavor. In fact, academic research, practical business experience and good old common sense corroborate the very real possibility that such national and global dysfunction is real and growing more likely every day. Taking steps to ensure the safety of and provision for a family or community is a reasonable—and advisable—strategy.
Research
Over 40 years ago, researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology predicted a severe resource shortage by 2030. Some scientists agree that the forecast is right on track. Meanwhile, numerous financial experts believe that the international debt bubble fueled by easy credit and inflated currencies will soon burst, leading to an even more intense recession and causing massive social unrest. While many are still bullish on the stock market, more sober-minded analysts see stocks soon losing over half their value. The increasing income gap and swelling national debt create an even more dangerous economic environment.
Economist Martin Feldstein, one-time Chairman of the president’s Council of Economic Advisors, believes that the current responses of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors are short-term fixes that will lead to higher inflation and higher interest rates in the future. Beyond that, artificially low rates relieve the pressure on the president and Congress to address the fiscal deficit. Although the Fed had previously held to a two-percent ceiling on inflation, Feldstein notes in the Wall Street Journal, it is now allowing that the limit will be exceeded. What can this mean for the financial and social future?
Higher inflation leads to, of course, higher prices. It bears noting that many news outlets will broadcast the “core inflation rate” that excludes food and energy from its factors. The reason behind this is that variables other than money supply (e.g. weather and geology) will affect the prices of these commodities. Yet these necessities are nonetheless subject to monetary policies, and are fundamental to survival should hard times come in the wake of economic meltdown. For this reason—and others—the importance of building a comprehensive survival kit in advance cannot be overstated. Should scarcity and desperation hit American shores, those with the foresight to store and courage to defend will fare better than others.
A survival kit adequate to a future financial implosion will be more than what might be found in a backpacker magazine. Stockpiling dried foods, for example, is preferable to cans and jars in that these foods use less space. Storing one gallon of water per day for each person and pet in the household is essential for survival. A two-week supply of food and water should be saved at a minimum. Commercially bottled water is likely the safest option for storage. In addition, thorough preparation will account for the storage of a gasoline reserve. Whether for an emergency generator or for extended travel, gasoline should be stored below 70 degrees in appropriate fuel cans—the larger the better—and supplemented with additives that preserve potency and slow evaporation.
Protection of supplies and loved ones during times of desperation and social unrest is crucial. For an all-purpose firearm, the 9mm handgun is widely acknowledged as effective and easy to use. Consequently, no survival kit is complete without lots of 9mm ammo. Unfortunately, recent years have seen unprecedented ammunition purchases by government agencies and anxious gun owners, so time should not be wasted in obtaining a significant cache. Without sufficient protection, the hard work of acquiring and storing supplies becomes futile.
BIO: Lee Flynn is from the Wasatch Mountains near Salt Lake City, UT. Through small local workshops and articles, Lee trains and teaches others on home preparation, food storage techniques, wilderness survival and self-reliance. After obtaining a bachelor’s degree from the University of Utah, Lee moved to the Salt Lake Valley where he now lives with his wife and daughter.
The fastest way to improve Don’t Wait to Build Your Survival Kit is to simplify the process and control one variable at a time. Start with the most important baseline: define the goal, identify the main failure point, and test one change before making another. Keep short notes so you can connect the outcome to the adjustment you made. This prevents guesswork and helps you build a repeatable method instead of chasing random fixes.
Check the most immediate bottlenecks first: setup errors, missing inputs, bad timing, or inconsistent follow-through. Before buying anything new or changing the whole system, confirm that the basics are being done correctly and consistently. A small diagnostic checklist usually reveals the real problem faster than broad trial and error. Once the weak point is clear, make one correction and watch the result before adjusting anything else.
The most common mistakes are changing too many variables at once, skipping the basics, and judging results too quickly. Many people also copy generic advice without adapting it to their exact situation, which leads to weak results and confusion. A better approach is to work from a simple baseline, make measured changes, and give each change enough time to show whether it helped. That makes progress easier to track and repeat.
Each week, for the next 16 weeks, our sister site (Your Preparation Station) is running a Giveaway Extravaganza – Weekly Book Bonanza! This week they are raffling for a chance to win the First Edition of “The Survival Medicine Handbook“.
We are so thrilled with the excitement from the first week’s giveaway and have selected at random a winner of the book “It’s a Disaster….” already! She has replied in the 48hr time frame and we are sending the book to her this week.
We can’t wait to see what happens with the next giveaway! So we have decided to bring the blog notices about them each week here to the PREPARE Magazine Blog. Just in case readers here would also like to enter. It’s fun and it’s Free!
Week #2 or the Giveaway Extravaganza Weekly Book Bonanza is The Doom and Bloom Survival Medicine Handbook – First Edition. Keep your Loved Ones Healthy in Every Disaster, from Wildfires to a Complete Societal Collapse.
Joseph Alton, M.D. & Amy Alton A.R.N.P. (aka: Dr. Bones and Nurse Amy of DoomandBloom.net who also happen to be writers for PREPARE and Founding Sponsors) have written this book with the precision of those in the medical field yet in terms any laymen can readily understand. This book covers a vast array of medical needs! It is easy to read and well formatted for finding what you need to learn. Every family should have, at least, a foundation for medical emergencies. This book goes beyond the foundation but lays stable ground work on which to build as well.
It is well laid out to compartmentalize issues as you learn how you might be able to treat them. Sections include: ‘Principles of Medical Preparedness’, ‘Becoming a Medical Resource’,’Hygiene, Sanitation and Environment’, ‘Infections’, ‘Environmental Factors’, ‘Injuries and Reactions’, ‘ Chronic Medical Problems’ and ‘Other Important Medical Issues’ such as nosebleeds, stockpiling medication, etc.
Each section within The Doom and Bloom Survival Medicine Handbook – First Edition has multiple sub-sections to help you become better equipped to handle the incidents that can occur during disaster. From Cellulitis to Snake bites, Dr. Bones and Nurse Amy address so many things in this 419 page book. Many of the things of which you may not have been aware! The book also includes a Glossary (which can be very helpful to a novice or those unfamiliar with medical terms) and other Medical References.While here is a Second Edition:The Survival Medicine Handbook: A Guide for When Help is Not on the Way the one we are giving away, is the building blocks to address almost every given emergency and should not be overlooked for the newer version.
This Giveaway is for a first edition copy (The Doom and Bloom Survival Medicine Handbook – First Edition ) which retails on Amazon for about $30.00 before shipping. Wouldn’t it be a great addition to your preparedness library? You bet it would! So enter below.
Come back and Tweet daily to increase your chances of winning too!
The Book Bonanza Giveaway for Week 2 highlights the Survival Medicine Handbook, which is packed with essential information for emergency preparedness. Participants can look forward to learning about practical medical skills and survival techniques that are crucial in crisis situations. This giveaway not only offers the chance to win the book but also encourages readers to enhance their knowledge on survival medicine.
The Survival Medicine Handbook serves as a comprehensive guide that equips readers with the skills needed to handle medical emergencies when professional help may not be available. It covers topics such as first aid, treating injuries, and managing chronic conditions in survival scenarios. By engaging with this handbook, you can significantly boost your confidence and readiness for unexpected situations.
Absolutely! The Book Bonanza Giveaway is open to everyone, including those who are new to survival medicine. The Survival Medicine Handbook is designed to be accessible, providing clear explanations and practical advice for beginners. Participating in the giveaway can be a great way to start your journey into emergency preparedness.
The Survival Medicine Handbook covers a wide range of topics essential for survival situations, including first aid techniques, natural remedies, and how to manage health issues without immediate medical assistance. It also addresses specific scenarios like wilderness survival and urban emergencies. This breadth of information makes it a valuable resource for anyone interested in enhancing their survival skills.
To increase your chances of winning the Book Bonanza Giveaway, make sure to follow all the entry guidelines provided in the giveaway announcement. Engaging with the content, sharing it on social media, and inviting friends to participate can also improve your odds. Staying active in the community and showing genuine interest in survival medicine will enhance your overall experience.
