Rational Preparedness is Recognized !

       

        Thank you to everyone who has been a part of the Rational Preparedness blog for the last ten years. Today I learned that this blog has been recognized as "One of the best blogs for survival for 2018"
            Thank you, and best wishes everyone.

https://www.jaysguide.com/best-survival-blogs/#wwwrationalpreparednessblogspotcom

"Portsoy Woods" Now on Kindle

                                              Portsoy Woods is now available for Kindle !



https://www.amazon.com/Jane-Alexandra-Krehbiel/e/B00J94CM9U/ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_1?qid=1479915727&sr=8-1


It is also available on other electronic media formats at:

 http://booklocker.com/books/8874.html

and these other fine booksellers:



Amazon Store URL - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01MRO40DO

BN Store URL - http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/portsoy-woods-jane-alexandra-krehbiel/1125132787?ean=2940156820924

Apple Store URL - http://itunes.apple.com/us/book/id1179246931

Kobo Store URL - https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/portsoy-woods




#portsoywoods,#authorJane-AlexandraKrehbiel,#Jane-AlexandraKrehbiel,#JaneAlexandraKrehbiel,#economiccollapsenovel,#novelprepper,#portsoywoodskindle,
 

Let's Use Some Sense With Storms

          

      This week, a family with whom I am acquainted mentioned that they are going to Florida on vacation. They had noticed that Hurricane Matthew was coming ashore in Northern Florida, but the wife said, "We set this up quite a while ago, and so we're going no matter what !"  Although it might be nice to think you lead such a charmed life that nothing can happen to you or your family, it is also the height of foolishness.  I have a friend whose entire party died during a trip to Florida during a hurricane. He was the only survivor, and lives with that every day.   Why would anyone choose to take their family in harms way deliberately ?   I know that we can't avoid every hazard and that we certainly can't stop driving, but we can decline the opportunity to take our families headlong into danger.

               As I write, a storm surge from Hurricane Matthew is occurring between St. Augustine and Jacksonville.  Twenty people including children are stuck in a St. Augustine bed and breakfast with rising waters and heavy winds. Pieces of hotels and railings are breaking off in winds clocked at as much as 91 mph.

               There will be plenty of disasters you and your family will be unable to avoid. Please don't deliberately travel to any !    My hopes are that everyone in Florida, Georgia and the Carolinas in the path of this storm stay safe.

Why We Stopped Answering the Landline

          

    We have had a conventional telephone in our home for a long as we have been a household. When we built both of our farms,(one after the other) great consideration and planning was given to making sure that outlets existed in the places we would ultimately use phones, faxes or other devices. Sometimes, we have had two landlines, one for the household and another for my husband's business or for for farm business.

                  In the 1990s we got a couple of cell phones, not because we really used them, but because with a newly Type I diabetic child, we thought it prudent to be able to call for help, in the car, or anywhere else. At first, the cell phones were barely reliable. In the country we still have many places that are dead cell zones, or strangely automatic drop call zones.  As the years have passed the phones and the availability of cell sites have improved.  Today, all of our family has their own cell phones and we tend to call one another directly, while bypassing the landline. Months can pass before I actually need to make a call on the house landline.   We keep the house landline for a number of reasons.  First, the landline provides not only phone service, but sufficient electricity in the line to power phone service when the power is out.  Being able to call for help or report an outage is very important.  Secondly, the sheriff's office can immediately pinpoint the location of a 911 call, if we call them, and had to hang up.  A cell call can be triangulated for location, but not as easily and certainly not as quickly.  Thirdly, we have a coast to coast free call program with our landline which is quite cost effective.  I don't even mind the monthly fee we pay to the phone company to keep the number unlisted.
                There was a time when the security system here was connected to the landline phone, and would automatically call the sheriff's office.  Now, a wireless system to do the same exists.  The security system no longer depends upon the landline service.

               However, in the last couple of years I have rethought the landline phone.  Those creating databases of potential purchasers or mark,s no longer need a name with a number.  Calls are made in sequence and telemarkers or con artists will talk to anyone who answers.   We also get a huge number of calls from pollsters who want to know how we plan to vote in everything from primaries to presidential elections should they be held today.   I don't give opinions to people I don't know.  I don't talk to people who call and don't know the name of the people they have called.  I won't even talk to the NRA which calls incessantly to get additional funding and can't get my name or sex right.   So many calls we receive on the landline are time consuming and not really intended for us, that I no longer answer it.  Real calls come to my cell or to the cells of other family members.   Not answering the calls also has negative results.   I have an answering machine which picks up the first ten minutes worth of recorded messages.  I keep this because if the power goes out when we are away, we can call the house and if the answering machine message answers then the power is back.  We have a secondary voicemail through the phone company.  They pick up with a different message if our answering machine has ten minutes worth of messages or if the power is out.   It takes time to weed through both message venues. Calls can be so frequent that both message modes can be full in a week. The IRS scams I posted about clogged our landline message systems for a couple of weeks.

             Last year I made the mistake of looking into completing an additional college degree online.  When I reviewed details of the curriculum I found that this particular program would not be of interest to me, and so I have chosen against completing at this location.  On several occasions I indicated this.  I now receive five calls a week from a reputable university asking me when I wish to begin there.   No one seems to be able to successfully notate that I have passed on the opportunity.

This is the phone my parents began and ended their household with.  In all those years, it never malfunctioned. I replace mine, almost annually.

 

             So we have almost reached the point at which we can unplug the landline being almost assured that no one calling is legitimate or calling for something that might actually benefit us.   We keep the landline for the rare occasion in which we need to report a power outage, call 911, or call long distance free. We used to use long distance a great deal, but now with e-mail, not so much.  It is interesting to see the mode of communication that was so dear to me as a teen, fall into disuse, even in my own household.

            I still recommend you have and keep a household landline if possible, for the positive reasons I have mentioned above.  I hope you are enjoying the Information Age a bit more than I.

   




          

              

Powerball

             

(Rendering: abc13.com  )

             So this week the Powerball Lottery is up to five hundred million dollars.  I don't generally play the lottery as having two dollars in certainty, is usually worth more to me than a lottery ticket.  My view has also been hardened by scriptural cautions against gambling.  Thirdly, one of my brothers-in-law not so laughingly calls the lottery a "Tax against stupid people, who don't understand what the odds 25 million to one really mean"  Despite the slim odds,  I do know a couple of people who have won smaller lottery jackpots.  One woman won a smaller jackpot a few years ago, and after taxes, was able to pay all her debts, her mortgage in full, fix her car, and allocate funds for the education of her children. She reports to work each day with joy. In her case, the lottery was a lifeline, and I am so glad she won and for the positive changes in her life.

              This week, when the television announcer said that we were all more likely to be struck by lightning than win this lottery, I gave it more thought. In 2011, one of my adult sons was struck by lightning and has the long term medical issues which go with that.  So, we have that type of one in a million luck, albeit usually bad. Besides, I could help my son with some of the winnings, so I broke down and bought one ticket.

                  There is one thing a two dollar lottery ticket does give you. It provides a couple of hours of imagining what such a windfall would do for your family.  For some of us, we would change a great deal our lives and for others, we would not, choosing instead to fortify the educations, safety, security and futures of our loved ones.  One of my friends, if she won, would buy new cars for everyone in her family since car repairs have taken a big chunk out of the family budget last year.  She would move to a place nearer work and install a swimming pool for the hot Virginia Summers.   I have different plans. If I were to win, I would change very little about the externals of our lives.  I would have the vehicles maintained in perhaps a more timely manner.  I would pre-pay some ongoing bills to simply know several months of breathing room.  Rather than traveling in to see the vet with so many animals, I would pay the equine vet, the large animal vet and the small animal vet to come out to the farm and take care of my aging animals of all species. They have all been with me for a long time, and they deserve the best care available.  I would maintain a few things around the farm a little better than I have been. I'd gravel the farm roads more often. I'd look at solar panels and put in geothermal heat. I'd probably stock more freeze dried emergency food.   I'd get a better financial planner, but keep my accountant.  Then, I would pay off my children's university debts. I would start a foundation honoring both my father, and start one honoring my youngest son Daniel, who has passed. I would make a sizable donation to the Salvation Army in the name of my mother, who always donated to them because she said they were as frugal as she. I might write more books and worry less about their commercial outlook and more about their positive message or how they aided people reading them.  I would be very hands on regarding any charitable activities and scholarships.  Then, I would place reasonable amounts in trust for my children and grandchildren......enough to back them up for the future, but enough that they would need to work and not be shielded from the life God sent us all to live.  Anyone looking at our lives would still see the frugal family we always were. I would also help some of our friends who have struggled with serious chronic health issues for years.

                 I awoke this morning to find that no one won the five hundred million dollar Powerball Lottery. I got my two dollars worth above in the form of the dreams in the paragraph above and this blog post.  Will I buy another one ?   No, I think this time I will go with the sure thing, and keep my two dollars.

A Reprise: The Dangers of Winter Spider Bites

I first wrote and posted this actual post on December 20, 2012. Since the weather in much of the US has been quite warm this Winter, and there have been floods which may move spider habitats, I thought this would be a good time to reprise this important post. 

    Happy New Year Everyone !

(Photo: Jim Stone).   This is a female black widow spider.

       
 

    I have written a number of posts which warn readers of the hazards of spiders.   Most of us don't expect to be bothered by them in Fall and Winter, even in the South, but then we would be wrong.
About eight years ago, while departing from the farm, while driving  a minivan, I received a little prick on the back of one of my legs. This turned out to be a brown recluse spider bite, and this was during Winter. Apparently, the spider had made it from the woodpile to the minivan where passive solar heating had made the interior warm enough for it to survive and crawl up my leg, under my slacks as I began to drive.  Since it didn't hurt much, and only intensely itched later, I underestimated the seriousness of this bite.  It was a few months later when I learned I had a serious hemolytic anemia from this bite, which had long since healed.
I eventually recovered, but my critical anemia took a long time to correct, and I did not have a normal energy level for a long time afterward.

This is a brown recluse spider.

                 Today I was remembering this, as I had a near miss.  I have been secretly hiding some gifts in the garage so that my husband and adult kids wouldn't find them.   Our detached garage is generally locked and quite secure.  When I get the chance, I sneak out there, and wrap and label the gifts, and then hide them somewhere else until  "Santa's Night Flight".  Despite the cold, I noticed some new webs as I quickly gathered the scissors, tape,. ribbon and rolls of wrap.   As I neared one of the boxes, I noted the largest female black widow spider I had ever seen.  In self defense, I brushed her off the box, and crushed her as quickly as I could.  As I did, I remembered the bite I had on my thumb as a child many years ago, and I remembered the terrible swollen tail Rosheen, the Jack Russell terrier had after being bitten by a black widow in her doghouse.  There are likely to be more of these in the garage, which is warmer than our  woods and woodpile nearby.
                So, even during Winter, as you navigate attics looking for Christmas decorations and wreaths, garages looking for gift hiding places, tool sheds for exterior extension cords,  and as you clean out cars of gifts newly bought, please be aware that although we might see fewer spiders in winter, that they are not impossible.   When packing away Christmas decorations, use plastic boxes which click shut and stay that way, and use freezer bags which zip shut inside those.  Wrapping fragile items in white tissue paper will also allow you to see any hazards before they could sting you.   Take care, even in gloves or boots.   Our Californian habit of shaking our shoes and gloves before putting them on, is wise, in any place.

This is the underside of a black widow spider. The hourglass is characteristic, but some simply have other red markings.

     

These are our prior posts regarding spiders and envenomation injuries:


http://rationalpreparedness.blogspot.com/2012/07/other-types-of-envenomation-injuries.html


http://rationalpreparedness.blogspot.com/2012/07/brown-widow-spider.html


http://rationalpreparedness.blogspot.com/2012/06/farm-hazards-spiders.html

In Tribute to Too Many Little Lives Lost

           

            This month in the United States, there has been no shortage of egregiously bad news.   This week, a young Muslim woman from Chicago who thought her parents might kill her over having a child out of wedlock, threw the newly born infant out of her eighth floor bedroom window. The infant girl died at a hospital later with a listing of injuries that would make ISIS cringe.   Another baby was found recently in the Los Angeles area, abandoned with umbilical cord attached and buried with construction debris.  Joggers luckily heard muffled cries.  This baby will survive.    I just read an article concerning an African American bail bondsman who is alleged to have beaten his seven year old son to death and then fed his remains to the pigs. Neighbors seemed to be well aware of a number of instances of severe abuse of children who were residing in the man's home.

                   There has always been wickedness upon the Earth, often bordering the homes of those who do very great good. There have been occasional babies born in toilets since there were toilets.  However, even if we adjust for the ability of the internet to bring all the egregious news of wickedness to us, there is still great evil perpetrated against babies and children, and this appears to be increasing.

                  We cannot always know of the suffering of babies and small children which occurs in our world. Sometimes, such things do occur in relative isolation. Sometimes, other individuals are complicit in such acts and cover for someone who is profoundly ill, or perhaps simply profoundly evil.  However, we must try as a culture, and as a world to do better.  When you are out and around, work on your situational awareness. Don't simply be aware of the man who is watching your purse.  Notice more than that.  Notice the sick infant in a carseat locked in the Altima in the Wal-Mart parking lot.  Maybe the misguided mother will be back in three minutes with tylenol, but maybe she won't.  Maybe that child's only chance at survival is your sitting in your car, noting the time, and calling police when no one returns.   I am a big believer in parent's rights, but there are a number of people who are pervasively neglectful and abusive to small children.  If decent people don't notice things and bring them to the attention of social services and police, then a percentage of these children will in effect, be tortured, and will die.

                 Some years ago, a woman who'd had recent surgery died in a neighborhood I lived in, and her newborn died in the crib in the same room, the result of no one knowing the child was there without being attended to, post the mom's sudden death. No one noticed they hadn't seen them !   I didn't know this woman, but I have felt badly about this ever since.    It may not be wise to intrude in the business of others, but we need to keep an eye on those with young children. Sudden deaths occur, even in young people, and a baby alone may not live more than a couple of days without care. We also know that even young children can carry the scars of a couple of days of neglect which most of us believe they would not remember.

                A child is always a blessing...............not an obligation, a millstone, a killjoy, an expense or an albatross.  Each child is blameless as he or she enters the world, and knows nothing of the circumstances which brought them here.   Each one of them is chock full of human potential and we should all conduct ourselves accordingly.   To those who are bringing a child onto the Earth that they do not wish to raise.....seek an adoption agency immediately.   Hundreds of couples who are carefully vetted would be elated to have the opportunity to love, raise, and educate that child.   Of course, there are less than perfect adoptive parents in the world, but most are incredible parents and will raise incredible children. One of my dear friends was adopted by a wonderful family.

               Especially at this time of year when we throw material goods at one another in Jesus' name, we need to recall that every birth whether legitimate, planned for, wanted, or an infant well, or ill, is proof of the opinion of God that they should overcome incredible odds to join us here on Earth.    When we can, let's start noticing the children at risk, and reporting what you saw to the correct authorities.  Lets save some young lives.

What Are Your Survival Objectives ?

     

Somewhere between being ready for three days alone, and being ready for seven years alone, is probably where most people should be.

  It is not really possible to prepare for survival objectives without first defining what you plan to do.

Is your objective to merely remain alive through a short term or longer term regional difficulty ?

Is your objective to remain comfortable with all your modern day creature comforts through an unanticipated disaster until the grocery stores open once again ?   This is the objective of most preppers. They seek to maintain the modern lifestyle, to which they have become accustomed. They wish to maintain comfort throughout a short duration interruption of some type.

This is not really my objective.  I have always approached preparedness with a different personal view.

Over the last thirty years my objective has been to remain alive throughout a variety of potential natural or man-made disasters for the purpose of rendering aid to my children, some of whom have medical issues.  Because no man is an island, and because we all depend upon others in some manner or another, my objective has also been to render reasonable medical and other aid to people well known to us following such a disaster.     Certainly, because my children have specific medical needs, and many of my neighbors do as well,  I require more supplies than someone whose basic objective is solitary survival.

 

Anyone, licensed or not can gather plenty of 4x4 and 2x2 gauze and tape.  Simple basic medical preparedness could well be the most important kind.  Exotic supplies may not be necessary for most issues.

            I have shared my personal perspective because it is important when gathering preparedness supplies to carefully define in advance what you need.    If you spend money on a vehicle which can evacuate six and you are a widow who owns a ferret, you may have misappropriated assets.    Everyone's assets are limited, regardless of your present perception or misperception, as the case may be, of wealth.  Money comes and money goes, much faster than we can hold on to it.  Reversals in health alone can turn us from being wealthy to being a pauper within a year, and insurance often will not pay for the best care or for some of the best treatments deemed experimental at that particular juncture in time.

           Stop gathering supplies for a moment, just long enough to truly assess your objectives.   Are you in a small enough rental home that you could not stockpile and remain there anyway throughout a protracted emergency ?   If you are, then perhaps the better objective would be collecting less, remaining mobile from that location, and saving for a home elsewhere.

           People who are in a permanent home, one that is paid off have the luxury of gathering and layering preps.  However, they are vulnerable to natural disasters such as floods and forest fires that could decimate that home and those preps.  They might also make the mistake of heavily leaning on sheltering in place without giving adequate attention to planning for a family evacuation, especially with animals.

           Those who are in a rental home might feel that they can't gather preps as they might wish, because ultimately they must move them.  However, they may have the advantage in that they may be able to relocate and evacuate their family and possessions more easily than those who see themselves in a permanent base and have stocked accordingly.  Each of us have an advantage of some kind with regard to our locations, our settings and our homes. Play to those strengths !



 

Make sure that both sheltering in place and family evacuation plans are made for your pets also.

          What are your objectives ?      Under what circumstances would you shelter in place ?
What would it take for you, your family and pets evacuate prior to being told to do so ?   Where would you go ?    Before stocking up and spending a lot of money on preparedness supplies, vehicles, or anything else, consider these truths, and craft a personal plan.    Your plan needs to be personalized and may not resemble the plan of your brother or your neighbor. Those with pets certainly won't have a plan which mirrors those without.

               How long could you and your family shelter without obtaining supplies from other locations ?   Remember that a journey of a thousand steps starts with one step, and then just a few more.

     More information on this at:

  Rational Preparedness: A Primer to Preparedness (The Book)