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How many of you have been composting?

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Recycle/Re-purpose those old windows! Make a greenhouse! Greenhouses & Nurseries DVD-ROM | Homesteading and Survivalism Store




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Great idea to reuse plastic bottles!

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The Three Stages of Crisis – Looking Through the Other Side of Disaster

Tom Chatham
June 14th, 2012
Project Chesapeake
Comments (122)
Read by 9,863 people

This article has been contributed by Tom Chatham, author of The American Dream Lost: Economic Survival Strategy For a New Paradigm. You can visit his web site at Project Chesapeake.

In every crisis there are three distinct stages that occur to form the complete crisis scenario. Once a crisis occurs, all three stages will be experienced at some level. In preparing for a crisis, you need to be aware of the stages and prepare for each one. A failure to acknowledge any of the stages will cause hardship for those caught up in it. Our ability to foresee danger and take precautionary measures sets us apart from other animals and gives us a distinct advantage when it comes to survivability. We have the ability to create tools and store supplies to see us through the worst of a given situation.

The first stage of any disaster is the pre-crisis interval when a potential crisis becomes suspect. Some will investigate the potential danger further to deduce its’ ramifications on their lives while others will ignore the potential threat in favor of maintaining the status quo so they will not have to face the reality. Many people have a problem facing a reality that suddenly changes and pushes them out of their comfort zone. To acknowledge a threat is to question the sustainability of that comfort zone and the beliefs that the person holds. Those that acknowledge potential threats widen their comfort zones to encompass the threat and they incorporate that into their beliefs so they can accept a changing reality and adapt to it. Once a person accepts a potential threat as real, they determine how best to protect themselves from it and form a defensive plan to deal with it. The defensive measures are dictated by the type of threat and the resources available to the individual. The defensive measures taken act to enhance the persons’ comfort zone and provides mental clarity when reality suddenly changes. This is why some people handle disasters better than others. Their comfort zone already encompasses the new reality and they are able to comprehend what is happening. Those that prepare during a pre-crisis interval are prepared for radical changes in reality.

The second stage of disaster is the unfolding crisis itself. This could be short or long in duration depending on the variables involved. An earthquake is relatively quick while a 1930s style depression is very long. The analysis and preparation one makes prior to an event will determine how well the person gets through the situation. Even without all of the necessary items identified by the prior analysis, a prepared person will fare much better than the unprepared due to the fact that their comfort zone will not have been breeched allowing them to make rational decisions in a timely manner. The preparations made during the pre- crisis interval will lead to successful navigation of the crisis and prepare the individual for the final stage.

The final stage experienced will be the post crisis phase. No matter how bad or long a crisis is, eventually it will end and recovery will begin in some form. A proper evaluation of the potential crisis will provide some insight into what a post crisis reality will require in terms of human and mechanical needs. The recovery effort following a crisis will depend in large part on what preparations were made prior to the crisis to provide infrastructure for the recovery. The failure to plan for a recovery effort will extend the crisis until the necessary situation develops in which recovery can commence. The act of preparation sets the stage for recovery even before the crisis actually happens and can limit how far outside of the comfort zone the crisis extends for unprepared persons. For every person prepared for the crisis, the extent of the crisis will be limited in scope and duration by a proportional amount.

Hence, if everyone is prepared for a disaster, the impact will be small and manageable and recovery will be rapid. Many people prepare for disasters but their planning stops at the crisis itself and fails to go beyond it. This can potentially extend the crisis in scale or duration until a majority of the victoms learn to move beyond the crisis and define the new reality they will live in.

As an example, you may determine that you are at risk of a tornado strike because of your location. Because of this you decide that building an underground shelter to protect your family is a sensible action so you build one. This is where most planning stops. If you believe your family is in danger then the possibility of losing your home is very high also. A complete analysis of the potential danger can lead you to a conclusion that you may also lose your home and leave you without the ability to care for your family.

Because of this you may decide to build a more robust shelter and equip it with the ability to house your family for several days and provide for all of their needs. Your post crisis planning will limit the hardship you face and aid in recovery.

To prepare successfully for crisis, you must look through to the other side of the disaster and determine how to best mold the new reality that will exist and prepare for the disruptions that are likely to occur. A plan to redefine the limits of a new reality will speed the recovery and prevent the lost, hopeless feelings that usually accompany any serious crisis. A failure to plan for the post crisis reality will leave the new limits to be discovered by trial and error and lead to a chaotic transformation rather than a smooth one.

The Three Stages of Crisis - Looking Through the Other Side of Disaster

The Ultimate Preppers – They Were Preppers, But Didn’t Know It

Norse Prepper
June 15th, 2012
www.SHTFplan.com
Comments (163)
Read by 8,388 people

This article has been shared with the SHTFplan community by longtime contributor Norse Prepper.

It always frustrates me when I turn on the television, read a newspaper or any other source of main stream media that is running a story on preppers. Invariably, with any television series or special, it is promoted with pictures of people with gas masks and AK 47’s talking about how they intend to kill zombies when the golden horde arrives upon their doorsteps when the SHTF. The most popular of these shows is the “Doomsday Preppers” series that is running on the National Geographic channel. I will admit, I watch every episode because there are always things I can learn when seeing what others have done to prepare for whatever they are preparing for and find the show to be very entertaining. In my opinion however, these extreme preppers are not a good representative of the vast majority of preppers.

Depending upon what any person is prepping for, be it an EMP attack with the long term loss of the power grid, a tornado/hurricane/flood, collapse of the financial system, nuclear war or any number of potential calamities that may come your way, there are always some basics that are universal across the board. These being food, water, defense of life and home and sustainability into an unknown future that will last as long as it does.

Outside of these staples of prepping, I have seen some of the extreme preppers having gas masks for the family, underground bunkers designed to ignite propane through hand rails to fry intruders in hallways leading to safe rooms and even homemade explosive devices. I can see why they do it and by having some of these things, they are probably more prepared than most. Having gas masks may be more common place in the prepping community and important for survival, but my point is that these are things that preppers typically take care of after the basics are complete.

Then there are the prepper want to be’s of the world. These are people that if National Geographic wanted to do a special on them, would show up and see them overloaded on information and lacking on results. They do research, read books on survival skills and talk a good talk about what’s coming and what they are planning on doing. It would be a very boring episode so you won’t see these people on any upcoming episodes I’m afraid. They are severely unprepared for whatever TEOTWAWKI situation arrives at their doorstep. Post collapse, they will be identified easily by listening to people in food lines and FEMA camps saying “I knew it!” and “I just didn’t have enough time to put it all together!” They may own a bunch of guns, mostly never shot more than to sight them in. They probably haven’t actually grown a garden, but have some seeds. They probably have never harvested a deer or game and prepared it for a meal. They call themselves preppers, but will have a very rude awakening when the SHTF.

That covers the 5% on either side of the bell curve of preppers, so who would be classified as the 90% and what would describe them? The answer is simple and can be answered with a single word. Grandparents. I recall a story my grandmother told me regarding arriving on a boat in North America. Her birthday was on Christmas and she recalls her and her sisters had a beet that was given to them for their Christmas meal. The moral here is that when someone tells me it could never happen here, I am reminded by this story that I am only 2 generations removed from it actually happening here in this nation. Is it ludicrous to think that these times instilled within our grandparents a sense of responsibility to prepare for leaner times? Today, many consider this extreme and would label them fringe nut cases.

When I think of the ultimate preppers, the picture in my head is of my grandparents. Growing up they were always known as “Farmer Gramma and Farmer Grampa”. They lived in a small farm house in northeast North Dakota and throughout life worked hard and played hard. They were preppers, but didn’t know it. When I was young, the farm seemed more like a playground, but in hindsight, they are what I believe all of us as preppers should aspire to become. They were hard working, self sufficient producers.

The following is just a short list of things I remember that they had in place that would apply to preppers:

1. Rural setting far from any major city.
2. Community. Surrounding farms were either family or very close friends. They all provided for their own families and helped each other when it came to butchering, harvest or anything that would be of need. They knew everybody and were very valuable to each other’s well being.
3. Farmers with farm equipment along with the means, methods and knowledge to fix anything. If it broke, grandpa could weld it. He had a pole barn for a shop and it had every tool imaginable, many of them hand tools, some electric.
4. Animals…lots and lots of animals. They had cattle for dairy as well as meat, hogs, chickens, horses and other occasional animals that were used to provide food and income to the family and a barn to house each of them complete with a hay loft that had a hook on the ceiling that could be used for transporting a hay bale from one side to the other or to turn a 6 year old into superman, flying over the countryside to eventually cannonball in to a pile of hay at the end of the barn. One main stay at the farm was a golden retriever named Goldie who would always let them know if someone was approaching or if there were unwanted animals like foxes, wolves or other predators. He was a great dog.
5. Fruit orchard. There were numerous apple trees and plum trees. My grandfather could actually take limbs from one species of apple trees and graft them on to a different variety of apple tree. Maybe this is something that is common, but to me it was a master at work.
6. Gardens. There was a fruit garden where you would find raspberries, strawberries and watermelon. The vegetable garden had, well, everything. Corn, peas, cucumbers, radishes, beans, carrots, lettuce, cabbage, beets and I could go on forever. From the eyes of a 6 year old I would estimate the vegetable garden to be over 2,500 acres, but in actuality it was probably about a half acre.
7. Food preparation. This is an overall generalization of hundreds of things that my grandparents did to preserve food for winter or leaner times ahead. All excess fruits and vegetables were sold, given away or canned. They had a cellar below the house where a room was filled with potatoes after harvest and there were hundreds of canned items lining every wall. I’m guessing my grandmother could take a railroad spike and turn it in to a loaf of moist, perfect home cooked bread. What’s a microwave?
8. Water source. There were two ponds dug for cattle, the original hand pumped shallow well that provided water to the farm and later a new well was drilled with an electric pump.
9. Shelter belt. There was a perimeter line of woods about 40 feet wide surrounding the house and rear yard. This provided shelter from winds and drifting snow as well as provided free heat for the house.
10. The house. I spoke of the cellar which contained mostly food. It was a small, modest typical farm house that was constructed at the turn of the century. Centered in the house was a wood stove that always had a pot of hot water used for providing humidity to the house as well as warm water for dishes, bath’s and other things necessary. Directly above the stove was a grate that went through to the small upstairs which had two rooms. Heat would rise from the stove and provide a very warm and comfortable atmosphere where their 7 children who shared the two rooms slept.
11. Entertainment. Let’s face it, grandpa had a radio and that was it until the television arrived. He learned to play the harmonica, piano, fiddle and guitar and was quite talented at all of them. They had a handmade wooden miniature pool table that had metal pegs sticking out of it. You would take the cue stick and hit wooden checkers along the table and each peg had behind it a hole that would represent different points.
12. A gun. You read that right, he had a gun. It was a .22 long rifle that was used to take a deer every now and then with uncle Nub back when you just decided it was a hunting weekend. They would take a deer and by nightfall it would be completely butchered and processed. The .22 was used during slaughter of the hogs and cattle, protected the farm from predators, provided entertainment in the way of target practice and was the only gun I ever remember seeing. It always was above the door, loaded and ready if needed. It wasn’t ever thought of being needed to shoot people, it was a necessary tool. One of my earliest memories of the farm was grandpa would take us out to shoot barn swallows if we would hand in the plug we still had in our mouth. Today that would be considered illegal, back then it was babysitting.
13. Faith. Above all else, my grandparents had faith in God. They lived a sustainable life and believed that God honored their faith and efforts by providing, and at that He did in abundance. I don’t remember the stern dad that I heard grandpa to be when mom was growing up. I remember that every meal started with a prayer and every day ended giving thanks to God for the blessings He gave our family. When grandpa was in a nursing home on his death bed he could still quote scripture word for word and his bible was littered with personal notes showing a lifelong journey walking with God.

I encourage all of you blessed enough to still have their grandparents wisdom available to talk to them of what life was like when they were young. If you are like me and they have passed away, there is probably someone in a local nursing home with a story to tell if you would be so generous enough to take some time to use their stories to further your education. Believe me, they will be doing you a favor and it would make their day that someone would care enough to listen. Just a suggestion.

I could write a novel on the other million things I remember of Farmer Gramma and Farmer Grampa and their prepping retreat we called the farm. It saddens me to no end that today, in these United States of America, the land of the free and home of the brave, that they would probably be labeled as suspected terrorists according to recent descriptions of what the government considers key indicators in a recently published document on what to look for when on the lookout for terrorists. They were hard working, God fearing patriots that loved their family and country. They were the ultimate preppers. You see, prepping wasn’t a movement at that time. It was survival. It was providing for their family the best they could with what they had. It was life on a farm.

God Bless,

Norse Prepper

The Ultimate Preppers - They Were Preppers, But Didn't Know It

rexresearch.com

Ian GILMARTIN & Robert CATTLEY
Mini Water Wheel

News | Herald Scotland

1 January 2007
"Free Electricity"

It is a mechanical problem that has troubled scientists since the ancient Greeks. Now a Scottish electrician has invented a small water wheel that could save thousands of pounds in energy bills.

Ian Gilmartin, 60, who has no mains electricity, is generating power from the stream in his garden. He and friend Bob Cattley, 58, have invented a mini water wheel capable of supplying enough electricity to power a house, with no running costs and zero carbon emissions.

The contraption is the first off-the-shelf water wheel system which can generate a good supply of electricity from a waterfall as little as 20cm in height.

It is designed to be used in small rivers or streams, making it ideal for potentially thousands of homes across Britain.

Mr Gilmartin, an electrician and inventor born and raised in the village of Springfield, near Cupar, Fife, was not prompted to think up his device by high energy bills - he does not own a TV and has never lived in a house with electricity.

But he has a stream at the back of his house near Staveley, in Cumbria, and with the help of PhD engineering student Mr Cattley, now hopes to see the invention in the shops by the end of next year.

Mr Gilmartin, who lived in Linwood before moving to Cumbria in the late-1960s, began experimenting three years ago with yoghurt pots, toilet rolls and wheelie bins in the stream, before test-running a prototype.

He took the results to the Lake District National Park, and secured a £15,000 grant from the organisation's sustainability fund. The prototype has been working successfully at St Catherine's, a National Trust site near Windermere, opening up previously untapped energy.

The water wheel produces one to two kilowatts of power and generates at least 24 kilowatt hours of sustainable green energy in a day, just less than the average household's daily consumption of around 28 kilowatt hours. It should cost around £2000 to install, and will pay for itself inside two years.

The Beck Mickle low head micro hydro generator could potentially provide electricity to more than 50,000 British homes and could be used industrially.

The inventors predict a series of them linked on the same river course could create enough electricity to power a small town or large hospital.

Mr Gilmartin said he came up with the idea after giving up work to look after his son, who had epilepsy. "There was nothing available on the market to recover any sensible amount of energy from low (pressure) heads, so in wanting something to think about at the time, I thought of the idea of having revolving buckets to recover energy.

"While we cannot say this provides free electricity, because of the initial cost of buying the machine, it is expected to pay for itself within two years and then greatly reduce the owner's electricity bills after then. Because what we are doing is cheap to make, the pay-back is very quick."

Gilmartin's Website: Beck Mickle Hydro Ltd: Home

WO 2006082403
[ PDF Format -- 1.1 MB ]

IMPROVEMENTS IN AND RELATING TO GRAVITY TYPE WATER WHEELS
( 2006-08-10 )
GILMARTIN, John Graham

Applicant: BECK MICKLE HYDRO LTD (GB); GILMARTIN JOHN GRAHAM (GB)
Classification: - international: F03B9/00; F03B9/00; - European: F03B9/00B
Application number: WO2006GB00351 20060202
Priority number(s): GB20050002142 20050202









http://www.est.org.uk/aboutest/news/...cleid=15061334

7 October 2005

Yoghurt Pot Generator Could Revolutionise Energy Production
A revolutionary new invention that uses yoghurt pot plastic to generate electricity could be a significant new step towards increasing the UK's reliance on renewables.

The Beck Mickle Hydro project uses the plastic device to generate electricity from shallow waters such as rivers and streams to a depth of just 20 cm.
"We could be looking at significant changes to power production," explained the inventor of the device, Ian Gilmartin.

"We want to generate energy from water between 20 cm and two metres deep. No one else has attempted anything like this in such shallow water."
Mr Gilmartin hopes that the invention, currently being developed at Lancaster University, will translate into a device that could generate enough electricity to power a house.

Homeowners could then buy the machine for around £1,000 to achieve their own renewable microgeneration.

The device could also reportedly be used to provide drinking water and in air conditioning.

The project has received funding from the Lake District National Park Authority's sustainable development fund. It is believed the device, once developed, could be used in up to 100,000 sites across the UK.

Beck Mickle Hydro Ltd: Lancaster University partnership
Beck Mickle Hydro Ltd in Partnership with Lancaster University.

Local inventor and electrician lan Gilmartin has redesigned the water wheel for the 21st century to provide renewable inexpensive electricity from even tiny streams without harming fish or contributing to global warming. This unique patented technology makes use of recycled plastic and can even provide power from becks that are no more than a trickle. It is envisaged units that are scalable will be sold as white goods that can easily be approved and installed before simply being plugged in.

Following a referral from Business Link Cumbria, lan has been working with the Enterprise and Business Partnerships (EBP) Team of Lancaster University's Environment Centre to assess the environmental impact of this technology, identify its market potential and strengthen its patent protection.

The environmental impact assessment focused on the use of food-grade recycled plastics within the water wheel, to support a possible demonstration at the National Trust's St Catherine's site in Winder-mere. This was contracted out to CookPrior Associates Ltd, a local consultancy experienced in such assessments, which identified a low risk of any organic chemicals leaching from the plastics to be used, but recommended a series of leaching trials to ensure that no unforeseen problems arose.

Through a variety of literature searches, internet searches and personal contacts with organisations such as the: NERC, Environment Agency and Land Registry, the EBP team have identified several reports providing information on potential sites for low-head hydro generation and the proportion of the UK meeting minimum gradient and flow requirements.
However, further work remains to be done, in particular the development of a comprehensive business plan to successfully attract investors. Therefore, a team of four MBA students undertaking a business planning module in the University's Management School, have been recruited. The team have enthusiastically accepted the challenge of pulling together the market information so far obtained and producing a first draft business plan for delivery in mid December. During the business planning project, EBP have continued to investigate a means of actively identifying potential customers, rather than relying solely on passive internet-based advertising. This has now led to discussions with the University's Geography Department regarding the possible development of an automated system for analysing 1 in 10,000 scale maps and providing the postcodes of potential customers for use in targeted mail shots, possibly along with their electricity bills. EBP are also working closely with lan using the group's patent and intellectual property experience, to strengthen Beck Mickle Hydro's patent position and ensure appropriate confidentiality agreements are in place across their numerous contacts.

Beck Mickle Hydro have also been working closely with the Lancaster University Renewable Energy Group (LUREG) to evaluate their technology against siphon technology LUREG are developing as an alternative means of low-head hydroelectric generation. LUREG, which has significant expertise in low head hydroelectric generation in both tidal and non-tidal environments have adopted lan's technology and are working closely with him to establish a number of demonstration sites for both technologies.

The EBP team with the financial support of the NorthWest Development Agency and Higher Education Innovation Fund helps companies across the NorthWest to access the environmental and science expertise of Lancaster University. This is accomplished via company visits to identify areas where assistance would be beneficial, small pieces of free consultancy, technical and business based student projects and facilitating the formation of affinity groups between companies to resolve common issues through collaborative research partnerships. The EBP team also serve as the prime contact for the Lancaster Environment Centre, which is the largest of its kind in Europe and brings people together from across the university together with the NERC's Centre for Ecology and Hydrology.

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John GILMARTIN: Low-Head Water Wheel

Obama should have made you his energy czar Sapper, this thread gets more amazing each time I see it. And I thought the FEMA camps were going to offer 3 hots and cable? Which would be a welcome site to all the people this non-president has left homeless and jobless! Thank You Sapper may need this if the camps become over crowded.