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Saturday, December 8, 2012

Preparedness Challenge 2012 Grand Finale!

Welcome to the Preparedness Challenge! Each month of 2012USA Emergency Supplyhas generously hosted a great give away to encourage families to set something aside to prepare for a time of emergency or the unexpected. I've been so excited to see how many of you have been preparing. And although link ups on here have been down a bit (due more to my lack of promotion probably than anything else), overall, I'm hearing and seeing more and more people taking preparedeness seriously. Recently Jamie Lee Curtis was on a late night show and brought her Bug-Out bag with her to show viewers. Nice, Jamie! It took some courage to "come out" and share that she's a prepper, too!

Todd at Prepper Website launched his FREE new journal this past month called The Preparedness Review, with some awesome articles. I was very excited to be included in his publication as well as his featured December Website of the Month (should be posted next week right here so check back if you want to see some fun answers to the questions he asked me!). If you haven't read the Journal, you need to click the link above and download it... the publication is free and full of great information.

Finally, I want to say a H.U.G.E. thank you to Justin at USA Emergency Supply for so faithfully supporting the Preparedness Challenge all year long with such wonderful give-away items! He has a huge heart for this and has been extremely generous... please take a minute to stop by his website today and just say "thank you" for supporting families getting prepared.

Speaking of give-aways...

Last month's give away winner is...

Langela @

Langela won the bucket toilet with deodorant and digester! Congrats, Langela! Email me when you get a chance, please.

This month's give-away...

As a grand finale to our 2012 Preparedness Challenge, USA Emergency Supply is offering an End-Of-The-Year Blast for our give-away...

Wondermill Junior Deluxe

Value $219!

What an amazing give-away item! Woo hoo! Someone is going to be VERY happy with this mill. Rather than me tell you all about it here, please take a quick cyber-jump to see the details of this item for yourself. Can you imagine how handy this would be in an emergency?

How I Met The Challenge!

• Food Storage: I added some awesome organic walnuts to my food storage from Fillmore Farms, as well as lots of canned tomato products, rice, and beans.

• Emergency Preparedness: I set up a family medical notebook which has all our most important medical information all in one place, including copies of major tests, etc. (More details on that to come in a later post, I hope).

• Sustainable Living: I scored big in this department... 3 commercial truck loads of wood chips for the garden for only $50! I'm talking a HUGE pile! I think I'm finally set for getting the garden Back to Eden. I also acquired another book... The Apple Grower by Michael Phillips. I'm considering a small orchard out back and this book focuses on doing that organically.

Join the Challenge & Enter The Give Away

I'm doing things a bit differently for our Grand Finale... using Punch Tab to record your entries (see below). I am just asking that you please do not participate unless you can comment and tell at least one thing you did this month to be prepared. And please pass along this post and share the give-away. Helping a friend or another blogger take up the challenge could someday save a life. We're in this together, friends!

This month has been a big one for preparedness. I have been enrolled in CERT in our community. I've purchased extra food during all the sales. I have celery dehydrating and will do spinach later today. I organized all ofy preparedness books and decided what I needed to add. I'm working on a 3 ring binder with all of the info pertinent to out family. I learned to can bacon this past month I'm also saving seeds and getting them organized for spring. Oh and last week we added a new hen to our little backyard flock.

Alright, I'm not sure if this really counts, but we are VERY new to this idea of prepping. We've heard about it and have been interested in it, however, we took the first step and purchased a book teaching us how to "Can". I'm excited to learn!!

Liz, locate your local extension office. They should have a course and a resource on how to can. Its easier than you'd think. But it does help to have someone stand with you and give you tips and tricks. Good luck!

There are a number of good online and youtube tutorials. "Pick Your Own" is a good online resource, as is "Canning Granny". Some of the survival blog sites post instructions in their archives, as well. It's very rewarding. You'll love it!

If you can't afford an "All American" canner (I can not), then go with a vintage 1970's model Presto; I have newer ones - Made in China - don't like them - even though they are Presto; the older ones hold heat better and are easier to maintain temperature. Don't get one too old, though, or you may not find replacement gaskets, parts, etc.

Your county agricultural extension office is usually a good source of info, as well.

I have a vintage 1970's stone mill, 1/2 hp motor driven, which I dearly love. I can run it by bicycle power, if necessary. But, I'd LOVE, LOVE, LOVE to have a Wondermill, JR. I don't have a Christmas tree, but, if I win it, I'll pop a bow on it - I promise!

Wonderful end of the year generosity! Thank you for faithfully blogging. I entered the giveaway, but wasn't given a comment box to enter what I wish was under my tree this year.....but I want to mention it just because it is a big deal to me....Free Shipping! There are so many organic foods that I would love to add to my pantry, but the shipping weights add up much too quickly. :). Have a blessed Christmas season!

This month preparedness was buying some canning jars at the thrift store along with more toboggans and gloves. We also brought more cut wood home for the wood stove for coming winter months. We quit using out electric heat in the winter and use a wood stove. I can cook on top of it when the electric goes out too.

We planted 10 trees/bushes this month. We moved here last year. Our goal is to add 10 fruit/nut trees per year. This year we planted 3 apple, 2 peach, 3 blueberry, and 2 English walnut trees. So now we are up to 20 fruit/nut trees!!

I feel like right now our life is consumed with getting prepared! We just moved onto five acres, which we're clearing to make pasture. I put 300 lbs. of wheat (I make bread 2-3x/week, and have an electric grinder), 100 lbs. of oats, and 50 lbs. beans up in mylar bags-n-buckets last week. Today, Mr. Caffienated is making three trips to the co-op for pellets for the stove (the trailer only takes one ton/trip). Wood stove will hopefully come next summer. Plumber is coming today to work on the whole-house filter. And baby arrives in March!

Absolutely all of the water purification systmes would be welcome under my tree. Pure, safe drinking water is the most essential thing to human life. The person with the cleanest water wins (lives)!!!!

I bought a small loom (frugally..great sale)and am learning to weave cloth. I already spin etc.. but cloth will be so useful. We are adding new bloodlines to our heritage flocks. This will help us monetarily all through the season. And our son is reclaiming an unused and weedy part of the yard for garden expansion. More of my medicinals will go there as well as the 'new' greenhouse made from the old windows stacked in the barn. Winter is a great time for learning new skills and preparing for the spring!

I would love to to win this! I have been prepping for over 2 yrs now- I scour thriftstores for older nonelectric appliances- and cast iron-I got a nonelectric coffee drip pot- and For Christmas asked for a hand crank coffee grinder- so I will have coffee if there is no power:)I also picked up a nice Lands End work coat for 4 dollars- I learned to make our own jerky- which is a good skill to have- to preserve food- I learned to pressure can this summer too! Also -to butcher Chickens and how to raise rabbits:)

wow thats a nice little mill.I have been looking at buying one of these to add to my supply closet.I just made my first loaf of bread today using store bought flour. I would love to start using whole grain that i grind myself.However being on disability i have a very limited income stream.I dont let the injuries to my back ,neck and shoulder stop me from prepping though.

Today I am ordering LED headlights for everyone's stockings. I read an amazing account of the financial meltdown in Venezuela a few years back. He said that the headlights (light that straps to your head) are better than any flashlight, lantern, oil lamp, etc.

I am learning to make my own apple cider vinegar and milk thistle tincture to detox the liver. I just renewed my concealed weapons permit, made crackers, sprouts, granola bars, elderberry syrup, tweaked my laundry soap recipe and sent my husband in for his yearly free physical.:)

I just bookmarked the website!!! Wow what don't I want. I want the grain grinder, really hope to win one. I also plan to buy at least 2 55 gallon water barrels. Soooooo much great stuff to look at and order.

I am a customer of USA Emergency supply. I can't get enough of the oxygen absorbers and Mylar bags. My next order is going to include some gama seal lids. I have 2 already, but I'm finding tons of ways to use more. Thanks for giving me a chance to win. I have half a bucket of wheat that really needs grinding.

We have finally finished putting together a 'bug out' bag ...tho we prefer to call it our 'get home' bag. Our thought is that we won't be leaving our house in most emergency situations, but that we might get stuck somewhere out of town and need to get back home...with a bit of help. We put together one for our car and one for each of our adult children's cars....Merry Christmas kids!!!

Great idea on the flannel sheets to tissues!! I restocked some items in my med kit (roller bandage, tape and triple antibiotic ointment) and like I do every time I go to the store, bought some dried and bulk foods for storage. (A little bit, every time, adds up)

I ordered extra sugar and flour through a group order from church to get prepared a little bit more. And have been checking out different ways to store water. We also rechecked our emergency packs and had to rotate some things out.

I'm a little confused about how to enter; I think I just leave a comment? To prepare this month, I've stocked up on pasta, tomato juice, and a few misc. food items, plus I canned some bought-on-sale ham.

I'm still taking baby steps in my preparedness walk. In the last thirty days, I inventoried my stockpile and have started to fill in some of the holes. I try to set aside $5.00 a week to add new items to my stockpile. I'm finally starting to get the hubby on board, so I'm hoping start taking giant steps in the new year.

I am in the process of gathering our family's medical information (no small task) into one place if that counts. Also, decluttering and making my grain supplies and stored goods more readily accessible. Really, just getting started.

I would love, love, love a hand cranked grain mill. I had a big shiny red one and a greenhouse on my Christmas list. I have done some winter planting, stocked up on some more canned items, OTC medicines like Imodium, bought water purification tablets, and a few other items for an emergency kit and traded a few books into Amazon so I could buy 2 new ones, God's Wild Herbs: Identifying and Using 121 Plants Found In The Wild and T he Complete Kitchen Garden. Also bought some OP seeds.

We are just getting started with prepping, but we live in Hurricane Country so it is much needed! We installed shelving in a closet to create a pantry and have begun bulk buying of several items to fill our pantry.

I have been really stocking up on my heirloom seeds for next year ( saving my own, and I bought 36 varieties I have never tried before), and stocking up on Tattler reusable canning lids. I also have been buying up cast iron cookware at thrift shops and garage sales. My husband and I will be building a rocket stove and outdoor oven, as well as a plain old fire pit in a couple of weeks! Very excited!

I started pressure canning and dehydrating this year. As a result, I have added home canned items to my stockpile. I filled my freezer in anticipation of a challenging 2013. This month, I ordered firewood to keep us warm in case of a power failure. Our generator has been tested and is ready to go. My goal for 2013 is to learn to make homemade bread - the grain mill would really come in handy!

Wow, the hand mill would be awesome! I have an electric grinder and need something manual.

This month I started sprouting!! We are all loving sprouts in our family- the kids love to eat them because it's so exciting to grow them. This adds more variety and a fresh greens option to our food storage.

For sustainable living, we cleared a plot for an herb garden and are making layers lasagna garden style to have prepared by the spring, including aged chicken manure from our hens.

For emergency preparedness, I added more bottled water to my stash, and am convincing my husband to consider installing a valve that will switch to a hand pump for our well. (okay, this isn't a finished project, but it's a big accomplishment to have gotten this far!) He's also agreed that this spring we'll get barrels for our rainwater run off to help water the gardens and the hens!

I can't wait to see more about your medical record binder. Thanks so much for running these giveaways. I love your site so much and share it with my girlfriends- it's so encouraging to have a site about wise forward thinking that is God fearing instead of fearing the world! God bless you!

I had the opportunity to visit Amish country this month and stock up on dried beans. Planning to also purchase 10 extra lbs of rice and a container to store it in. When ordering gifts from Amazon I added an order of 10 glow sticks(will keep kids entertained & can hang them up if we need)

I added to my supply of fabric ( cause you will need clothes when the old ones get worn out), reorganized my pantry after our new move into a larger home ( now i have a wholr room for storage and sewing), made a Christmas list full of emergency items and book I want to get as gifts. I also added more water to our storage. I will also start to help a friend make an emergency bag or first aid kit (she has yet to decide which one first). :)

I would love to see a 50 lb bag of organic Hard Red Wheat under the Christmas tree. Preferably in sealed mylar bags nestled into gamma-lid buckets. Sitting next to a grain mill :) That would be amazing!

i am new to the world of preparing, so i have to make up time. i got a $3.oo dehydrator at a gargage sale and am learning to use that, also canning. starting a indoor garden and trying to do it organically. saving some seeds and ordered some. trying to get prep bags ready. saving water and planning on purchasing garbage cans when on sale for water source. plans for diy solar panels, and purchased solar lights (the cheap kind). we have lost pretty much everything and are starting over. i would so love that grinder! =)

I purchased 12 dozen canning jar lids in regular and wide mouth. I also added 50 more pounds each of flour and sugar to our storage, along with more baking essentials, such as baking powder, soda, yeast and salt. finally got our woodstove installed and are adding to our wood storage. I do have a smaller older hand crank wheat grinder, but would love the Wondermill Junior! Would also love to have some mylar bags to add to my collected buckets from the bakery. Thanks for the wonderful blog.

I went to USA emergency supply, and right now what I am craving is their 6 gallon food storage buckets. I want a couple dozen of these. I love that they come with a rubber gasket for a good seal, and are stackable.

We have been searching for leaves and horse or chicken or cow manure in which to compost for our homestead garden this spring. (found a source for horse manure mixed w hay just this am! And we've been hijacking bags of leaves from people's curbs all week, lol.). Our garden will be used to feed us fresh produce, and also so we can can food for the yr to come.

What I really need to do (that I keep putting off) is to organize important documents (from financial to dog-vaccines!) and make hard and digital copies. Month after month, I put this task off since it just isn't as "fun" as organizing first aid supplies or headlamps or whatnot. This month, though, for sure! :)

Bought a dozen Mason jars at a garage sale this summer. I am slowly filling them up with dried beans and things as I find them on sale. The Wondermill would be a nice surprise under the Christmas tree.

We obtained some free oak firewood from a friend who had two large trees fall down in a recent storm we had(we live in the Sierra foothills) and we are beyond grateful as we heat only with wood and buying it is costly! We also were given some free food grade buckets from our local supermarket bakery and ordered some mylar bags to begin preparing long term food storage for our family. And, my husband works on a local organic farm so he receives all the unsellable produce for free so we have now stored pecans, chestnuts and we just canned lots and lots of ugly or too small, but still very edible, tomatoes. His job does not pay very well at all so the free food is a huge boon to us. I can't even begin to express how wonderful it would be for us to win the Wondermill Junior Deluxe. Thank you so much for the chance to win!

I've been shopping at the local thrift stores for canning jars and found a HUGE canning pot with basket. I'll be able to can more jars in less time. Have also been researching aquaponics to raise tilapia in barrels. Found a local beekeeping association that has classes starting in January. Dug out my grandmother's old meat grinder, cleaned it up, and am looking for a part. Purchased Borax, Fels-Naptha soap, and Arm & Hammer washing powder to start making my own laundry detergent. Read Chicken Coops for Dummies and learned that chicken coop building is NOT in my skill set!

Emergency preparedness: put together an emergency kit for our Expedition (this after breaking down and realizing I didn't even had a single water bottle with me...not good. The son chopped a box full of kindling to stock us up, and the husband worked on our almost-finished woodshed wishing he had more time to work on the homestead...

Sustainable living: reading up on starting seed (which time will be upon us before we know it!) in Mother Earth News. Working with my sister on making her small orchard more productive. :)

Thanks so much, Amy, for the opportunity to win this grain mill. I actually have one on my Christmas wish list as it's one thing I don't have in my self-sufficiency tool kit and that makes me worry a bit.

This past month I have been storing up more water, researching and shopping for a hand water pump, woodstove and a generator. I have been learning more about taking care of our health on our own and ordered some herbs and other natural supplies from Amazon and the Bulk Herb Store in order to do that better. We have also been working on making sure we are as financially ready (trying to get a larger emergency fund, thinking about paying off our mortgage early, etc) as possible and to that end I have been selling things on Facebook sites and figuring out other ways to make extra money. I feel very blessed by God and totally at peace in Him and am having fun trying to figure out whatever ways we can possibly be ready for potential hardships - all the while realizing that we can do nothing without God's help!

We are taking baby steps in order to prepare. My husband and I recently sat down to budget out money for buying food to stock up on. We typically have a lot of dry goods in the house already; home canned goods; dry beans, lentils, flour and sugar, so I am feeling good about those. We are also starting to assemble "bug out" bags, and have a plan for where we will go in case there is an emergency.

Last winter my dad gave each of the children a backpack full of emergency equipment a "bail out bag". I since have been following your posts on preparedness. I have been adding along all year. This week I started stocking up on dried and canned goat's milk for my 1yo, added a folder with shot records, medical records, birth certificates, I also have been purchasing heirloom seeds weekly to add to the stock.I was trying to enter your contest and when it came to reply the 3rd entry I was not able to. Under my tree this year I would love to have a grain mill. Sorry.

Our family has been setting things aside for a while now, but never with any real plan. My wife tipped me off to this blog, I've downloaded The Preparedness Review, and I'm learning an awful lot. I definitely appreciate the info and the organizational help.

We have always keep extra water and dried goods for emergencies. But recently we have been talking about making sure we have the supplies together for a bug out bag and also an extra supply of seeds encase we need them. I have also been working on rotating our canned goods before the expire.

In the last month I've reevaluated our lifestyle and started reading more about preparedness. I've started buying extras of food and necessities while watching to see what's on sale. And plans are in the making for a coop and new chicks after the first of the year.

I put all the things I've done for the 3 areas in the contest entry thingy above, hope that was what you meant. The things I'd like most from USA Emergency Supply are Mylar bags and oxygen absorbers. THanks for doing this!

With the clean up from the hurricane, the past two months have been filled with a lot of ups and downs. Since my 1/4 acre backyard was almost half destroyed by neighbor's trees, I've been making changes to the gardens and adding new fruit, nut and sugar maple trees. One of our ducks died and one was trapped in the coop for a week and wasn't laying for weeks after she was rescued so I added 7 new ducklings. They arrived yesterday and are as cute as can be. I won't be able to keep them all because its against town ordinance but I will sell some of them to cover the high shipping costs. With all of the downed trees, I had the branches chipped up and left in a compost pile. The larger branches I'm saving for a fire pit I build. I don't have a fireplace but can still use the wood. On the food storage side, I talked to a local grocery store and asked for their wilted greens and scraps. Now I pick up a large box twice a week and feed it to the flock. It's already lowered by feed costs significantly and the animals are thrilled to get fresh greens on a regular basis. I also found someone on Craigslist who was giving away from horse manure. After I cleaned up a section of the yard, I shoveled and moved 500 lbs of fresh horse manure to a new composting spot. Late next year it will be spread over my gardens. Ever since I found USA Emergency I love their products. I could really use the gamma seal lids and the grain grinder would be great for those frequent power outages.

You're so sweet, Amy. Thanks for the encouragement. Compared to families in other harder hit areas we have been very fortunate. Wishing you and your family happy holidays. BTW, I'm doing a combination of bakers twine and jute on the gifts.

I have added items to my stockpile that I got for free with coupons (toothbrushes, canned goods and bleach. I have been out of work since May so the budget took a major hit. But over the summer I canned lots of vegetables. I would love to win a grain mill. Thanks!!

After a major move, moving two households into one small one, I have been re-organizing our preps along with our everyday items. Downsizing is so difficult when you are a prepper! I also added a hand-crank stovetop popcorn popper. Thanks for the giveaway!

I have several hundred lbs of wheat in storage, as well as oat groats which are used for bread as well cereal I don't use enough to justify using a power mill, and they aren't worth much when the power goes out. So I would love to have the Wondermill Jr.

The thing I did this month to be prepared was to dry some spearmint and harvest the seeds for planting in the spring. Also we found 15 pound bags of potatoes at the store for only $1.59 each, so bought three with the intent of dehydrating hash browns for storage.

We brought home blue drums for water storage. Also canned much food. Have a lot of berries in the freezer, which I will be making into jam and canning in the cold months. It will warm up the house and smell sooo good.

HUGE MONTH! We explained to our children that we are starting to prepare for rain like Noah did in the Old Testament. We told them they needed to ask Santa for at least one thing that would contribute to this new path. My 11 year old son asked for a bow, my 8 year old daughter a sewing machine, my 6 year old daughter garden tools and seeds, and my 4 year old son wants a worm compost bin. We also bought food grade buckets and have started buying flour and sugar in bulk which is sooooo much cheaper. I also made my first run of homemade detergent. Whew!

Thank you for visiting Homestead Revival™! Please feel free to contribute to the conversation by leaving your comments. "Let no unwholesome word proceed from your mouth, but only such a word as is good for edification according to the need of the moment, so that it will give grace to those who hear." Eph. 4:29