Saturday, October 6, 2018

How Safe if YOUR Gun Safe

Written by Wild Bill on The Prepper Journal.

Editors Note: Our shortest post ever, but an important one. As always, if you have information for Preppers that you would like to share then enter into the Prepper Writing Contest with a chance to win one of three Amazon Gift Cards with the top prize being a $300 card to purchase your own prepping supplies!

This may be well known by many but it is worth a few minutes of your time to watch how easily some gun safes can be compromised.

Beating a Gun Safe.

And the majority of the safes cracked in the video are priced over $100, some way over. A big thank you to Handgun Safe Research.

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Friday, October 5, 2018

Preparing Your Cooler for a Long Trip

Written by Guest Contributor on The Prepper Journal.

Editors Note: Another article from Roger and the adventures at buyer benchmark to The Prepper Journal. That is them smiling in the picture, and who can blame them? For preppers their review contains good information we are glad they shared with us. As always, if you have information for Preppers that you would like to share then enter into the Prepper Writing Contest with a chance to win one of three Amazon Gift Cards with the top prize being a $300 card to purchase your own prepping supplies!

If you are planning a multi-day camping or hunting trip, you certainly have a lot of stuff to bring. One such item that nearly everyone takes, regardless of location, is a cooler. Especially if you are taking your own food or bringing game/fish back, the cooler you choose can make or break the excursion.

This article will go over how to make whatever cooler you have last the longest possible for your trip! For more tips and outdoor gear reviews, feel free to check out buyer benchmark.

Picking the Right Cooler

First off, all of these tips and tricks to keep your cooler cold won’t work if you have a crappy cooler! By crappy, I mean a cooler with thin walls and poor insulation. We have all seen the big, blue Walmart coolers. Those have thin plastic walls with a plastic lid and no gasket.

We need a cooler, such as a Yeti, that has been rotomolded and is packed with insulation. Most coolers we check out in our ice retention test had over 2-inch-thick walls and lid, full of insulation. Additionally, high quality coolers will also have a solid, rubber gasket that creates an air locking seal when closed to keep ice from melting over a long period of time. Make sure you know where the cooler is manufactured, for example, Yeti coolers are made in both America and Philippines, so you can be sure the build quality is up to snuff.

The bad part here is that Yetis are expensive! Recently, we did a huge test and evaluated multiple coolers that were cheaper than the Yeti and ended up having better performance. You don’t need to break the bank upgrading your cooler, but you do need to do some research to make sure you pick the right one. A few brands to look out for are Orca, Rtic, K2, and, of course, Yeti!

Pre-Chill Cooler and Food

Often, coolers get packed with food and drinks of all sorts. If these foods/drinks can be frozen, make sure you throw them in the freezer at least 24 hours prior to packing them up. This will make everything else in your cooler stay frozen much longer. It is essentially like adding more ice without taking up more space.

Cooler insulation works both ways. It tries to stay cold when cold, but it also tries to stay warm when already warm. Therefore, you want to be sure to pre-chill the cooler at least 24 hours before your trip. This is a weird trick that most folks don’t think about, but it makes a lot of sense. Fill up the cooler with a bag of ice and allow the entire cooler to become chilled. That way, you aren’t forced to try and chill the cooler with your food, as it will already be cold.

Recently, I went on a northern Michigan fishing trip where we were going to test our luck in the river for some salmon. Luckily, we timed the run perfectly and ended up keeping 23 salmon! That is over 200 lbs of salmon filets we cleaned and took home with us. It was an incredible experience; however, it required a ton of cooler space to bring all of that home.

Luckily, the camp ground we were at allowed folks to store their fillets, temporarily in freezers while out fishing. We were able to freeze most of the fillets prior to throwing them in the cooler, which allowed us to get a couple days of ice retention, rather than a couple hours we would have gotten if all the fillets were warm/room temperature. With a super nice cooler, we would have had no problem, but we were forced to use the cheap ones.

Arranging Your Food and Drink

Make sure you have all of your food and drinks strategically arranged in your cooler. When the lid is opened, warm air rushes in and cold air escapes. This means the ice will have to consume more energy to cool the air and melt quicker. Keeping the lid closed is extremely important and will help your cooler stay colder.

If you arrange your food properly, you can minimize the amount of time the lid stays open. For instance, if you wanted to grill up some brats for dinner, you would want to be sure your brats, buns, ketchup, mustard, relish, etc… were all packed together and on top. Otherwise, you will be forced to search and dig throughout the cooler. This is a simple trick but has been one of the more effective things to do during long camping trips.

Another trick we like to do is keep our drinks in a separate cooler. Think about it, 80% of the time you are diving into the cooler is to grab a bottle of water to hydrate or another beer. If you have all your drinks in a separate cooler, you can access that one frequently and keep your primary cooler sealed most of the time. Cold beer is nice and all, but not even close to requiring preserved and cold raw meat. Keep them separate and you can keep it colder!

Use Block Ice

The final tip that has saved us a time or two is using block ice, rather than a bunch of cubes. The reason for this goes back to the fundamentals of heat transfer but is simply because a block of ice has less surface area exposed to the elements than all the cubed ice. A 10 lb block of ice will last much longer than a 10 lb bag of ice cubes. Therefore, you should always try and purchase a big block from somewhere (like a fishery or sportsman shop).

A neat trick is freezing water bottles or, my favorite, a big jug of water. That way, you have a bunch of extra ice in a big block that, once melted, you can drink! This is a great technique for saving space and maximizing ice retention.

Overall, make sure you pick a high-quality cooler with plenty of insulation for your big camping or hunting trips. Additionally, ensure you keep it closed, use a ton of block ice, and chill both the cooler and food prior to packing her up! Feel free to stop on by if you have any questions – https://buyerbenchmark.com/

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Thursday, October 4, 2018

An Active Shooter – The First Ten Seconds

Written by Wild Bill on The Prepper Journal.

As in any emergency, YOU are your own “first responder” and your actions in recognizing an emergency and taking a positive step to save your self are the single most important action you may have to make. It is a natural response to do the following:

  • Freeze
  • Question – “was that really a gun shot?”
  • And then panic!

NONE of these are going to save your life in a real situation, and in fact may cost you gravely as they waste seconds you may no longer have to spare.

That’s why the repetitive training of professional first responder – police, fire, EMT’s and the military. The “realize-access-act” has to be almost second nature, practiced until it becomes rote, routine, the “I have done it so much I dream about it and I wake up fully dressed, equipped and ready to rock and roll!” Most of us will never face an “active shooter” situation, but as preppers we prepare for the “what if’s” and this one can happen in a big city, at any soft target like a concert, a holiday picnic, a trip to the park, and even along a lonely highway in Arizona, or outside of Fargo.

As such the Department of Homeland Security has produced a set of videos, informational collateral, and materials for first responders, businesses and private citizens. Things that facilitate what we preppers do best, PLAN.  DHS Emergency Action Plan: Active Shooter.

The Prepper Journal has written about this before but a lot has changed since then. And we have also posted in the past about having your own emergency plans. And not just for you but for everyone around you as well. And we have published some very detailed actions for you to work through from a credible source.

The DHS plan works for a business, or a group, like a church, or even a home, through a logical progressions of things to do to deal with this sudden and potentially deadly emergency.

After the panic-freeze, the moment of indecision, and BEFORE the panic takes over, you need a plan to:

  • Lock yourself down as best as possible, seek cover, if you feel secure enough now call 911, if not, don’t
  • Clear and then use your escape route and remove yourself from the scene as soon as possible; you may have to wait it out, so stay quiet and under what cover you have
  • Notify 911, when you can do it safely

If it is safe to help the injured do so, but don’t become another victim in the process.

Have a plan to assist those who may need assistance, the visually impaired, hearing impaired, non-English speaking, anyone confined to a wheelchair, walking with a cane, etc. Since this situation is an “instant on” and you may not know where the people needing assistance are at that instant, you need to secure yourself first and only try and get to them when you have a safe path. As a part of their planning they need to understand and be able to secure themselves as safely as possibly until the cavalry arrives.

When 911 Answers My Call

The system will answer all calls, in the order placed but if you are lucky enough to be first and they start asking you questions be prepared to be held accountable for the information you provide. It will take almost super-human presence of mind to be more factual than panicked, but realize that all you say with respect to the shooter, your location, injuries observed, will be relayed directly to the coming cavalry, and they will use it in their assessment of the situation and their associated actions. They know panic, they know what it is like dealing with many different views of the same situation and they know John McClane was a fictional character in a movie. If you end up on the end of the phone with them, keep you answers short and only about what you have really seen.

And If I am Armed?

I live in an open carry state and a lot of people open carry at work, and even more carry concealed. I have seen the videos about the hero with the gun and I mostly believe in them BUT I have been through the training and I have some concerns that anyone in this situation should consider:

  • If I am armed, covered in some manner and have a clear assessment of the shooter, can see him/her, and have a clear line of fire, I will take the shot. And to be clear it would be “shots” because I am going to keep firing until it stops. Until the shooter is down or I have exhausted all the rounds in my weapon.
  • And the reality of the situation is all my conditions above would be amazing luck if they all came to pass. I have seen too many CCW holders keep firing at the back of a fleeing suspect and that is recipe for disaster for not only the CCW holder but anyone in the direction of firing with other pedestrians out there and moving vehicles, and the occupants of the buildings across the street
  • And I would only engage the threat before Law Enforcement is on the scene. Once they arrive they have two goals of equal importance: locate and neutralize the shooter and go home to their families that night. If you are firing a weapon in an active shooter situation there is an excellent chance they will shoot you too. In the best case they will disarm you with necessary force and take you into custody, and here it gets even scarier
  • Everyone who was panicked, involved, scared and who doesn’t have a clear understanding of the situation who sees you “being handcuffed and dragged away from the scene by the police” will immediately suspect you were a part of it. It is a natural knee-jerk situation. This “fog of war” is very slow to clear, and you will find yourself, like a political appointee, having to prove your innocence
  • I am 100% for defending ones self, standing your ground and not becoming a victim of the shooter, or the courts

If you do carry and do not have one of the numerous insurance coverage plans I suggest you investigate them immediately, look at the details and what they cover where, and make the leap. The same rational applies to this insurance as to the weapon you are carrying, you may never need it but should you, there is no substitute. A few of the more popular ones are NRA Carry Guard, US & Texas LawShield and USCCA.

Yet Another Bag

In a business, or an organization such as a church or a facility such as a campground, DHS recommends a “Go-Bag” for first responders. The Go-Bag would have things in it like an up to date employee roster, locations of hazardous materials, and building schematics. Now most Fire Departments have the plans of most commercial buildings in their areas, but these may not be up to date, and they may not be shared with local law enforcement. Where the Go-Bag is stored and how often it is updated and how to inform first responders of these specifics is yet another challenge. As is the reality of just how many employees are in the building at a specific time with scattered schedules and shifts, vacations, business travel and on and on. But it does provide a starting point for sorting out the aftermath so it should warrant consideration.

 

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How To Use Fire Extinguishers For Self Defense

A fire extinguisher can be used to stop anyone from a home invader or rapist or murder to an active shooter in a school, where lives are at stake.

from Survivopedia
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Wednesday, October 3, 2018

Underrated Survival Skill: Getting and Staying in Shape

Written by Guest Contributor on The Prepper Journal.

You’ve pulled out all the stops. Water filter? Check. Stockpiled food? Check. An impressive arsenal of weapons to use only in the case of self-defense? Check. But there’s just one problem that you haven’t accounted for — one that should’ve occurred to you.

While you do have a large reserve of fresh food and water and the latest model of assault rifle, what you don’t have is a gym membership. Maybe you thought you didn’t need it, or maybe it just never came up, but now you’re envisioning yourself trekking through a lawless wasteland, out of breath, because you neglected cardio.

Any prepper worth their salt will tell you physical fitness is an essential part of survival in the barren battleground of post-apocalyptic America. Without a strong set of legs and lungs, you won’t make it past the outskirts of your town. Heck, you likely won’t make it past your backyard fence.

There are plenty of reasons survivalists don’t pay enough attention to their fitness. They might believe they’ll be secure squirreled away in their safe room or underground bunker as they wait out the worst of things. Or maybe they aren’t expecting to do a whole lot of travel.

But the key to proper preparation is to expect the unexpected. Even if you plan to keep all 12 of your locks sealed tight, a fire or emergency might push you from your safe space out into the world, and then you’ll have to depend on your physical endurance to get you from point A to B.

So what can you do to begin honing your body into the perfect instrument? This article will list the top ways you can get and stay in shape so you can beat the odds.

Figure Out Your Limitations

Before you start a strict workout regimen, learn what you’re capable of. Doing so reduces your risk of injury. Try basic exercises to evaluate where you stand regarding your present physical fitness, then move on incrementally from there.

Set a timer and see how long it takes you to complete a mile. Perform as many push-ups, sit-ups, crunches and curls as possible before you exhaust yourself. It’ll give you a good indication of where your body is now and a helpful frame of reference to look back on in the future.

Once you have a solid understanding of your current physical acumen, use that information to structure the workout plan you intend to follow. Don’t make the mistake of pushing yourself too far too fast. These preliminary precautions will stop you from doing precisely that.

After you’ve logged your baseline, it’s time to start adding these elements into the mix.

Regular Cardio

Some consider cardio to be the most essential part of physical fitness in the event of an end-of-the-world scenario. And it makes sense. It’s easy to imagine a situation where you’ll be forced to escape a group of people who mean you ill will.

Equally likely is a long journey on foot across hilly or mountainous terrain, especially when you consider gas stations will be permanently out of commission. Reliance on vehicles for transportation is not a safe bet. So, cardio is at the top of the list when it comes to essential skills.

Start your routine with a combination of running and walking, taking intermittent breaks to catch your breath as you begin building stamina. A focus on form is your top priority in the early stages of running. Without good form, you’ll sacrifice more energy than necessary and do damage to your joints.

Before starting your run, remember to stretch! Neglecting proper warm up techniques is a common cause for sprains and tears.

Weightlifting

You never know when you’ll need to rely on your physical strength to help you escape a perilous predicament. The last thing you want is to get outclassed by an enemy who can easily overpower you. Your very life could depend upon how much weight you can lift, so take strength training seriously.

A membership at your local fitness center will be well worth the cost. Alternate between machines and free weights to maximize your efficiency with what time you have, taking time between sets to hydrate. Dips are an effective upper-body exercise that hits your chest, shoulders and triceps.

For those of us who find it difficult finding the motivation to visit the gym regularly, involve a friend. Having another person depend on you gives an incentive not to skip. If you can’t find a friend, book sessions with a personal trainer to acclimate yourself to a steady routine.

Coordination Training

Coordination has many practical applications, both in the city and the wilderness. You’ll find any area you traverse will have a set of challenges to test your spatial reasoning. Sharpen these abilities, and you’ll greatly improve your chances of survival.

Maybe you’re sprinting through a forest and have to weave between trees while avoiding their roots. Or, perhaps you’re traveling through an urban setting as you jump from roof to roof. Either way, you’ll be welcoming pain if you can’t swiftly manage external stimuli.

Techniques for improving coordination range from juggling to balancing. If you have access to an obstacle course in your area, see how quickly you can complete it. Otherwise, hopscotch, catch and twist jumps are all excellent for improving your control.

Outside of its effect on your mobility, coordination will also influence your skill in handling particular weapons. Whether you’re wielding a baton, knife or bow, it’s an extension of your body. Your accuracy will fall on how deftly you maneuver yourself.

Let’s See Some Hustle!

No amount of study, stocking or building can help you if you’re out of shape. You have a responsibility to you and your family to maintain peak physical condition at all times. Because when disaster strikes — and it will — you’ll be the first person they turn to for guidance. Don’t neglect your body! Start a cardio routine, lift weights and practice your coordination. We’ll catch you in the field.

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Tuesday, October 2, 2018

How to Prepare an Emergency Plan for Your Family When You’re Away from Home

By ​Conrad Novak 
As parents, we can be hesitant to leave our loved one's home for an extended period. It's our nature to worry. We feel as though our families become more vulnerable without us. If we prepare for emergencies when we are away from our loved ones, we can feel more comfortable leaving them.
Most disasters tend to happen when you least expect it. When you're far away from your family, these 5 ways to prepare an emergency plan will allow you and your family to respond to emergency situations in the best way possible.

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Put Someone in Charge

First, establish a chain of command when you are away. Who is next in line to lead the group? The person to be left in charge should be the most responsible for the bunch and be someone that has the rest of the family's respect. The person in charge should be groomed to do what you would do in an emergency.

This person may be your oldest child or your youngest child, depending on the level of maturity. Without having someone in charge there is no order. To prevent panic, someone should take the lead in case of emergency.

It's crucial that your family understands the importance of working together, as one wrong decision could lead to a life or death situation. Emergency plans only work if your family members execute it out correctly. It's important for them to know that in case of an emergency everyone needs to stick together and not panic.

Traits to look for when choosing a leader are effective communication, positive attitude, trustworthy, and innovative. Be sure that the person in charge knows that they are in charge and will step up and accept responsibility for the others in your absence. This person should have access to the emergency plan and everything needed to execute it. Knowing that you have a second in command will ease some worries until you can get back to your family.
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Enlist Outside Helpers
Get to know your neighbors. Neighbors may become your closest allies in case of emergency as far as proximity goes. At the least, exchange contact information. If something seems array, have the convenience of calling a neighbor and asking them to check on your family. Ensure that your neighbor knows that you will do the same with them.

Get permission to include their information in your emergency plan and allow them to use your information in their emergency plan. Contact nearby Family and friends. Tell them about your emergency plan and gather updated information to include it in the plan. It is important to have options for people that you can depend on. These people may have different qualities that may be best depending on the emergency. A nearby cousin may be a pediatrician in case a child is sick or a nearby friend may be a police officer which can be an asset when an emergency strikes.
 
It may be something as simple as the electricity going out. You can call your neighbor on their mobile to see if they were affected.

Outside help can be essential in case of emergency. Someone may be home alone or may not have the ability to get out. You may need to use a neighbor's resources. There may be a storm coming that you have no idea about and a neighbor may want to warn you or you may want to warn your neighbors. It is possible to get through tough times alone, but much easier to get through it with others.
 
Be Realistic
Your emergency plan has to realistic to those involved. Be sure to consider emergencies that are likely to occur in your area. It can be impossible to plan for every possible hazard. Being sure to plan for things more likely to happen will give you more preparedness than trying to plan for all disasters. If you live in a flood zone, focus on an emergency flood situation rather than the apocalypse. Visit Happy Preppers for information on planning for natural disasters.

Set realistic expectations of emergency situations. Sometimes an emergency is not as bad as it may seem. Sometimes an emergency situation is worse than it seems. Be sure to access the situation and over prepare a bit. There is no need to cover your home in plastic full time, but it may be necessary to board windows if a storm is approaching.

It is also important to be realistic when planning for an emergency when planning an emergency evacuation. Don't plan to swim to safety without taking into account that someone in your family is unable to swim. It is also important to take into account your family's fitness level. Climbing into the roof or fitting into a tight space may not be an option for certain members of the family.

You will have to tailor your emergency plan around the characteristics of your family. The goal is to keep everyone safe. It may benefit you to plan with the weakest and most vulnerable in mind i.e. a baby or an elderly person. There is no one plan that works for every family.
 
Have a Drill
Practice makes perfect. Drills are of the utmost importance. Just as drills are done in public places such as schools, drills should be done at home. By doing drill we can familiarize our families and ourselves with the plan, and work out any existing issues. Have a drill based on each type of emergency planned for. These drills don't have to be done all at once. They can be completed of a course of time.

However, it is important to complete the drills as soon as possible. It is not enough to complete the drills once. Drills should be done once a year to remain fresh on everyone's brain.
Be sure that your family takes the drill seriously. We tend to forget what we are supposed to do when disaster strikes and adrenaline rushes through us. Repeat drills until they become second nature. When completing drills, verify that everyone knows their role and acts in their role.

Consider places where you will be able to meet if the house becomes off limits and you are unable to contact each other. Verify that this place is familiar to each family member, and be sure that everyone has access to it.

Create an emergency kit based on the needs of the family. Include necessary medical equipment and items to care for pets. There are many online resources that aid in creating an emergency kit. A good resource is Survivor’s Fortress Bug Out Bags Guide. This source has documents that will aid in building your emergency kit and forming an overall emergency plan.
 
 
Write it Down
This is the most important step in creating an emergency plan. We simply cannot rely on our brains to remember every step of the process. Take the time to produce a physical copy of your emergency plan. Include all information and step by step instructions. Your emergency plan and emergency kit should reside in the same place. Make sure the emergency plan is easily accessible and safe from possible threats.

If you have a safe in your home, this would be a great place for your emergency plan and kit.
Be very detailed in your plans. Write it as if your family knows nothing. Assumptions have no place in an emergency plan. Visit Preppers Survive for tips on building an emergency kit.
Be sure that your plan is easy to read and easy to follow. If you have small children, write your emergency plan with them in mind. Add photos wherever necessary. Include collected contact information in the front.

When completing drills, include and follow the written plan. Make adjustments as needed. An emergency plan should not be set in stone. Whenever adjustments need to be made, make them. You may know how to better handle an emergency in the future than you do now.
Be sure to update contact information as it changes over time. Keep in contact with those on your emergency contact list to know if their information has changed. You may have to remove or add contacts over a period of time. Writing your emergency plan down will give your family the best chance of success should an emergency occur.
 
Conclusion
Now you are prepared to start creating your emergency plan. With careful research and thoughtfulness, you can create a plan that may protect your family in your absence. It can be difficult to imagine disasters especially when we are away from our loved ones. Thoughts of disaster are necessary to properly plan for a favorable outcome. Get your family and friends involved for their input. Creating an emergency plan is a serious matter but can be a fun family activity. The more you include your family when creating the plan, the more likely they will understand its importance.

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About the Author:
Conrad Novak is a proud father of two children. His journey as a prepper began when Hurricane Katrina hit and he lost his job due to the 2008 economic crisis. That made him realize that everything can change for the worst in a very short time. This experience was the detonator for him to pursue learning and becoming better prepared to face the kind of unexpected disasters that may occur at any point in our lives. You can read more of his content at SurvivorsFortress.com


from Survival Ready Blog, Outdoor Survival Gear & Skills, SHTF , Survival Skills, Preppers, Survival Gear, Survival Kits - Survival Skills
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Survival Gardens: Bedding Down for Winter

Written by Guest Contributor on The Prepper Journal.

First let’s give a nod at the growing zones that are just entering or hitting the main strides of their production seasons. Best of luck to you!

For many of us in the northern hemisphere, growing season is winding down. We may be extending our production with row covers, greenhouses, indoor veggies and greens, and sprouts, or we may be hanging up our gloves for a complete break.

Winter or summer, anytime we’re going to let our gardens or some portion of them go dormant, some simple preparations can help lower our workloads and increase their productivity for the next season.

Test Now

While things can change due to soil activity and temperature, even if you’re already getting frosts or snows, go ahead and test your soil pH and nutrients. You can do basic tests at home for very little cost. Most extension services also offer testing, including a battery for micro-nutrients using plant matter, so call around to see if that’s an option.

Most amendments, especially on the pH and major deficiency fronts, do best if they have some time to groove before planting. If you’re making significant changes, it’s usually recommended to do so incrementally verses dumping tons in one go. The faster we know about a trend, the faster we can address it and get back to max productivity.

*Don’t ignore this one if you have pots and planters – they’re as vulnerable as raised beds and can benefit just like beds and row-crop plots. 

Spread & Start Compost

Fertilizing early also applies to compost, finished or partially finished, or raw.

Trench, hole and tube composting in-situ allows microbes to work over raw materials through the verges of our seasons. Spreading finished or partially finished compost on the surface also allows nutrients to permeate downward and for microbes and beneficial insects to work it into the surface.

We can also go ahead and till or fork finished or partially finished compost into the surface of soils for the same effects. Soil will be better conditioned at the start of planting.

Composting materials – to include the “safe” manures – can also help us if we use greenhouses, cold frames, or plastic row covers. Composting requires some warmth, but it also generates heat of its own. By doing pits or trenches to fill with compost, we can actually extend the growing season for some of our tenders and our cold-hardy crops.

The compost that develops over autumn and winter will be ready to help feed areas of the garden that need a spring boost. In cool areas where it won’t completely finish, it’ll still be speeding up the process for us.

Greenhouses

Wash off any dust or pollen that’s built up on the roof or sides through the season to maximize the sunlight plants will be getting. A pressurized hose nozzle or power washer can also remove the leaves that will or are already falling.

Don’t neglect the interior. Greenhouse glass or plastic can end up coated by “hard water” and “soap scum” mineral deposits as condensation and irrigation spray evaporates, reducing the amount of light that gets through.

Outdoor cold frames and row cover plastic can be more difficult, but can also benefit from spraying or brushing off pollen and dirt, mild solutions to remove evaporation buildup, and some visual inspections for wear, holes, and rips.

This is also an excellent time to check for holes in screens and drafts in window joints and at the door(s). Adding reflectors and heat sinks like black hoses, buckets, and bottles filled with water can further extend seasons.

Clean-up season can also be a good time to run disinfectant protocols and check preps for winter-spring greenhouse pests.

Gardens Like Cozying Up Under Blankets, Too

One of the biggest, easiest boosts comes from leaving as little bare, flattened earth as possible over our dormant season. Cover crops and a specific way of tilling for sloped areas gets covered in a bit, but one of the most effective ways to bed down gardens is to tuck them in with a nice blanket.

Tarps prevent soil erosion and compaction from rains and any snowmelt. Especially for raised beds and planters or containers, diverting rains and snowmelt also means less nutrient wash-out.

“Tarps” in this case means anything that spreads flat– cardboard, plastic, wood paneling, strips of metal roofing, salvaged kiddie pools. Some types of carpets, curtains, and blankets can also be effective.

Container gardeners have it really easy, and can just slide trash bags over their pots and planters.

Tarping also prevent weeds from being blown or carried in, and most types listed above will block sunlight, starving weeds below.

In many cases, they’ll also create warmer soil conditions. That will keep our soil life active later and earlier in the season. (That’s both pro-con if pests start digging through them hunting our bugs.)

Mulching delivers many of the same benefits. Mulch comes in a wide variety of types and styles – whole leaves we rake from our trees, chipped leaves, leaf mold and compost we developed over the growing season, pine or grass straw, wood chips. Mulches can also be mow-down, crimp, or cold-kill cover crops.

Depending on our climate and whether we have “woody/hard” mulches (wood chips, whole leaves) or “soft/green” mulches (lawn trimmings, leaf mold, buckwheat and mustard covers), our mulches may break down sufficiently over the season to be tilled in or planted through come spring. Others may need to rake them off, furrow through them to expose soil for a planting pass, or use no-till methods, especially for the woodier types.

Some of the warnings about mulching are justified. In some cases, the “threat” is actually something I’m aiming for or consider a bonus – like pine and oak mulches increasing acidity in beds.

If you’ve had a booming acorn year (walnuts or pecans, too), you might want to do some winnowing so fewer end up planted in your nice, fertile garden soil to become a pest.

We definitely want to be very cautious if we’re chipping privet for mulches. Privet should be outlawed, and can survive some incredible horrors, then become a real pest. Discard any berries and sift through for small branches that escaped the chippers to avoid problems.

Also skip mulches made from trees that share diseases with our crops and ergot-infected grasses.

If we have major flea beetle or slug problems, some mulch types will exacerbate them and we may want to apply other measures to protect soils over the dormant season.

 

Cover Crops

It’s not as easy to bed down a whole field, especially late in the season. If there’s time in your growing zone yet, you may be able to get a cover crop in, or autumn-sow a cover that will come up in spring for some protection.

Buckwheat sprouts and grows fast, and can provide some die-down soil cover. Radishes and mustards are also quick and both have some additional benefits, especially if you’ve had pest problems earlier in the year, but consider your upcoming crop rotations with them.

Cover crops also apply to smaller beds, and there may still be time in some zones for things like autumn-sown, spring-harvest grains.

Tilled Plots

If you’re past the point of planting with a field or plot maintained with till cropping, there are still a couple of things that will help.

One, leave standing stubble unless it’s going to be a pest/disease host.

If it’s already bare, turned in, or has only sporadic plant matter, go ahead and get another till in. Double-cut across the face of contours to form exaggerated furrows (ridge-and-furrow irrigation style).

Versus a plot that’s already packed down flat and bare, both stubble and the undulating surface will slow and catch more of winter’s rains and any snowmelt, increasing infiltration and reducing erosion and nutrient runoff.

Exaggerated furrowing also means less spring flood inundation, creating warmer and less compacted soils that can be worked earlier in the year.

If the plot is small enough, go ahead and identify where you’ll be actively planting and where you’ll be driving or walking. Covering just your growing space may be possible, protecting that soil and decreasing the weed load. Any of the covers from tucking in smaller beds apply – weighted tarps and cardboard, compost, straw and leaf mulches.

Bedding Down Gardens

A few simple steps can have huge impacts on our gardens when they’re not in production, whether we’re going dormant for busy or arid or sweltering seasons, in part or in full, or for winter. Especially in areas where we get as many rain and thaw days as we have frigid days and persistent snow cover, protecting beds, planters, and row plots from weeds and runoff can help enormously when we’re ready to break ground again.

Working ahead to improve yields next year doesn’t have to be expensive. We can source coffee for fertilizer, all kinds of tarp replacements, and pine straw and leaves without spending a dime. In other cases, we can boost our productivity with $5-$25 testing.

Most bed-down practices also apply if we’re planning to expand our gardening next year, especially when it comes to soil testing, soil structure amendments, and lowering the weed loads we’re going to face. “An ounce of prevention equals a pound of cure” is pretty much universally true. It applies exponentially when it comes to our dormant and future garden spaces.

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6 Things To Consider For Surviving (The Upcoming) Winter

To those of us who are preppers, winter's coming means being ready for that major storm which shuts down power and brings our cities to a standstill.

from Survivopedia
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Monday, October 1, 2018

The Benefit Of Research Essay Composing

The Benefit Of Research Essay Composing

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from Patriot Prepper
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9 Ways To Build Your Self Watering Garden

No matter whether you grow vegetables or herbs, they must have the proper amount of water for their needs in relation to the area that they are grow in.

from Survivopedia
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Sunday, September 30, 2018

21 Useful Items Good Preppers Never Throw Out—Why?

There are resources that can prove invaluable for survival – things that you can recycle, collect, or repurpose into useful tools and bargaining chips.

from Survivopedia
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