PrepForToday- Helping you Prepare for Today, so you can be Ready for Tomorrow

PFT- Ep5- 12 Important Phone Numbers to Program in Your Cell Phone

PFT005- 12 Important Numbers [ 10:47 | 9.87 MB ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

12 Important numbers to keep in your cellphone, car, or little black book

In any emergency time will be of the essence, especially when you need to reach one of these people. In this episode we review twelve numbers your will want to be sure to keep handy.

1.) local police non-emergency number
2.) local county non -emergency number
3.) veterinarian number (include after hours number if different) plus Vet ER
4.) insurance company claim line (auto and home)
5.) tree service company (or two)
6.) family lawyer
7.) plumber
8.) electrician
9.) volunteer fire/ems
10.) Local taxi service

11. ) Handyman

12.) Roofer

Bonus

credit card company/bank 800 number (for loss/fraud)

—

Have some suggestions for more critical numbers that you keep handy? Please leave a comment and tell us what you think.

Episode 4- Growing Salad Greens in Containers

PFT- Ep4- Growing Salad Greens In Containers [ 10:23 | 9.5 MB ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

PrepForToday Ep4

Today we will review the benefits of and how to create your very own salad green containers.

Not only are they quick and easy to assemble, they make a great prep as a food production system and provide a steady supply of fresh greens at a fraction of the cost of those store bought salad blends.

Salad Green Container- Ready to begin harvesting

Outline of topics covered-

Benefits

- Quality

- Cost

- Convenience

- Control (inputs)

- Safety

Inputs

- Container

Window Box w/ watering tray
Good Quality Growing Medium
Seeds (loose leaf salad blends)

- Growing Environment

Warm
Light- critical

- Water- non chlorinated (or let it sit out for a day or two)

Assembling

- Container

Drill drain holes
Fill container (within 1-2 inches from top)
Water soil
Sprinkle seeds (like grass seed)
Tamp seeds with hand to ensure good contact (carefully)
Wet with spray bottle a couple of days, until seeds germinate

Care

- Germination

Keep top damp
- Spray bottle- avoid watering w/ can (washes seeds into a corner)
- Water from bottom once germination starts
- Keep close to good light (for 16hrs a day)- use timer, if possible

- Growing

Water weekly from bottom

Provide natural sunlight whenever possible

Harvesting

After 4 inches tall

Harvest in sections (usually 1/3 to ½ of container at a time).

Cut flush to top of container (leaving at least 1-1 ½ inches of growth for regrowth (careful not to pull out of soil)
Overseed if too thin
Rinse, dry and enjoy

Succession plantings

Being new containers every few 2-3 weeks, to ensure a continuous supply

—

Please be sure to SUBSCRIBE to receive spam free updates when new episodes are posted. I have a long list of new topics I’ll be recording and publishing in the days and weeks to come.

If you have a comment or suggestion about how we can make this podcast better, or to provide suggestions for future episodes, please send me a PFT-Comment.

PFT Ep3- Household Power Backup Options

PrepForToday- Ep003- Household Power Backup [ 11:04 | 10.13 MB ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

In this episode I review our 2008 power outage, how we managed, and why we chose our current backup solution for our current house.

Ep 2- Life Saving Emergency Weather Radios

PFT- Ep 2- Emergency Weather Radio [ 9:20 | 8.55 MB ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

5 Things to Look For When Choosing An Emergency Weather Radio

It seems like every time we turn around there’s a new stream of weather emergencies unfolding. It doesn’t matter where you live in the world Mother Nature is always working hard to keep it interesting. To help us be more prepared for these often unpredictable weather events it’s critical that we have an early warning system in our homes. This is especially critical while we are asleep.

One of the simplest ways to help fulfill this need is to choose a good quality emergency weather radio. Here are five key features to look for when researching your emergency weather radio’s features.

Photo Courtesy of NSSL

1.) S.A.M.E TECHNOLOGY- LOCALIZED RECEPTION- This enables you to configure your radio for your specific and/or surrounding counties. Programming the weather radio for your local area helps prevent unwanted alerts from non-relevant areas. You don’t want to be awaken in the middle of the night for something that’s not heading your way.

2.) ALL HAZARD ALERTS- there’s more than just weather emergencies and disasters that impact us. “All Hazard Alerts” include events like Amber Alerts, Nuclear Power Plant Warnings, Biological Hazard Warnings, Civil Emergency Messages, and Fire and Landslide warnings.

3.) All 7 NOAA Weather Bands, and Canada Weather Channels for our friends in Canada and the northern states. These weather bands aren’t just for emergencies. These weather stations provide you with your local weather’s current conditions and forecasts, 24-hours a day, not just when there’s a looming emergency.

4.) MULTIPLE POWER SOURCES- AC and battery at the minimum. Some models have hand cranks and/or solar panels. An “AC only” unit won’t do much good if the power goes out. A battery backup solution is a requirement, not an option.

5.) ANTENNA- This may seem like a strange item to be in the top-5 but the larger the antenna the better the potential reception your radio will have, especially if you are in a basement or internal room.

In addition to the Top-5, there are several ‘notables that are worth mentioning, the non critical niceties. Some of the better units on the market will provide features like alarm clocks with a snooze feature, multiple alert methods- (voice, display, and alert), USB charging ports, Public Alert capabilities, etc. Some are even built into regular alarm clocks.

Photo Courtesy of NSSL

: Photo courtesy of NSSL

There are many great units on the market that fit a wide assortment of needs- home based units, hand-held and portables, emergency-crank, marine grade radios, etc.

For our basic needs we chose the Midland WR-120 Emergency Weather Radio With Alarm Clock. We found that this unit filled all of our needs at a very reasonable price. It’s been a great unit and comes highly recommended by me.

If you have been thinking about getting an emergency weather radio, don’t wait any longer- do it now! You owe it to yourself and your family. After all, your safety and well-being can depend on it!

Prep For Today Podcast- Episode 1- Introduction

Episode 1- Introduction

This introductory episode of the PrepForToday podcast provides some objectives for the podcast and a brief introduction of myself.

The primary objective for this blog and podcast is to deliver valuable information and resources that can help you better prepare for many of life’s emergencies.

Life’s emergencies come in all shapes, sizes, and frequencies. By educating ourselves on a wide range of topics ahead of a disaster, we can often handle the aftermath of the disaster more effectively and with less stress, often times with reduced cost in time and resources.

The blog posts and podcasts will cover a wide range of topics. We’ll be covering the core preparedness topics like food, shelter, energy, health, well-being, and financial preparedness. Not to mention the disaster recovery and hazard preparedness- both naturally occurring and man-made.

Realizing that disasters aren’t limited to our home lives, we will also have topics dedicated to our businesses and organizations. For starters, these topics will include developing some business continuity strategies and business-specific disaster preparedness and mitigation plans.

With all of these great topics on the horizon, there are other topic areas we will intentionally stay away from. Politics, religion, and conspiracy theories.

Everybody has their own opinions and beliefs and I respect that. These topics are well covered in plenty of other places.

By now you may be asking “who is Steve White and what does he know about disaster recovery and preparedness?”.

Well, I’m Steve White. I am a certified Project Manager specializing in Information Technology, Finance, and Business process. I have over fifteen years of project management and business leadership experience, including new business development.

My primary areas of focus are Process Design, Process Improvement, System Design, System Implementation, Risk Mitigation, and Disaster Recovery Planning.

I have been personally practicing preparedness planning and disaster recovery mitigation for more than twenty years.

The combination of my professional and personal experience, plus my preparedness theories, which I’ll be outing in future episodes and blog posts, helps lay the foundation for this podcast and blog.

There’s plenty of great information on the way. If you have not already, please subscribe to the blog and to the podcast in iTunes.

Thank you,

steve.

Please leave a comment or email me at steve (at) prepfortoday.com with any questions, suggestions, or feedback. Your input helps improve this resource for everybody.

###

Epi-0001-PrepForToday-Intro.mp3

The Prep For Today Podcast

PFT- Ep5- 12 Important Phone Numbers to Program in Your Cell Phone