Archive for April, 2011

Readiness Watch for the Week of 25 April 2011

Monday, April 25th, 2011

Readiness Watch is a weekly publication intended to provide current, relevant, and actionable readiness information to people determined to be ready for whatever comes next, and especially for those people who are just starting their journey down the road to readiness. Readiness Watch will include observations, commentary, advice, links to resources, and related news.

I always welcome input from my readers, especially tips on information or ways to make this publication better. Feel free to contact me with information, advice, or tips or for ways you can support this effort.

Readiness Watch for the week of 25 April 2011

Previous Readiness Watch posts.

DLH

 

Be ready now: 3 things you can start doing this week to be ready for whatever comes next: Hygiene

Monday, April 25th, 2011

Be ready now is a weekly post about things you can do right now to get ready for whatever might come next courtesy of Dennis L Hitzeman’s Readiness Weblog. You can find other posts in this series in the “Be ready now” category.

This week’s theme: Hygiene

  • Immediate: Buy a stock of body cleaning products that do not require water. You should have at least one package on hand for each person involved in your plan. In addition, consider stockpiling extra water, soap, and towels.
  • Intermediate: Emergencies of any duration require a different approach to hygiene, especially if water resources are scarce. Remember that hygiene does not require potable water, but you should never used fouled water for hygiene. Consider stockpiling extra water, soap, and towels for hygiene purposes. You can build homemade water filtration systems from readily available components to recycle water for hygiene purposes. Consider stockpiling fuel and containers to purify water.
  • Long-term: Long term hygiene concerns involve constructing systems that allow for the collection, filtering, and recycling of non-potable water. In many places, the best method is to construct an outdoor shower facility with a rain collection system, a collection basin, a hand pump, and a drum water filter. Water can be kept from freezing during the winter months by the addition of a stove and heat transfer elements.

 

Do you find this information informative and helpful? Feel free to contact me and let me know. You can also contact me about ways you can support this effort.

DLH

 

Be ready now will return next week

Wednesday, April 20th, 2011

Be ready now will return next Monday. Thank you for your patience.

DLH

Readiness Watch for the Week of 18 April 2011

Wednesday, April 20th, 2011

Readiness Watch is a weekly publication intended to provide current, relevant, and actionable readiness information to people determined to be ready for whatever comes next, and especially for those people who are just starting their journey down the road to readiness. Readiness Watch will include observations, commentary, advice, links to resources, and related news.

I always welcome input from my readers, especially tips on information or ways to make this publication better. Feel free to contact me with information, advice, or tips or for ways you can support this effort.

Readiness Watch for the Week of 18 April 2011

Previous Readiness Watch posts.

DLH

Readiness advisory

Tuesday, April 19th, 2011

I advise everyone to pay close attention to the economic news over the next several days. From the reading I have been doing over the past 24 hours, the S&P downgrade of the government’s credit rating has the potential to be just the first of several hammer blows to the economy over the next week. This news is coupled with drastically rising wholesale inflation numbers, significantly rising commodity prices,  the specter of rising interest rates, and the potential that S&P may only be the first to downgrade.

The potential outcome of this toxic brew of circumstances is that it could trigger yet another recession (or the second dip if the existing recession). This potential becomes most threatening in that a second recession will further reduce the revenue being collected by the federal government, increasing the size of the deficits at current spending levels just at the time when it became harder for the government to borrow money because of higher interest rates and more credit restraints. In the most extreme circumstance, the government may find itself unable to borrow sufficient amounts, forcing it to defund or reduce funding on programs in mid cycle.

Be ready before it is too late.

DLH

 

Delayed posting

Monday, April 18th, 2011

Today’s usual Readiness posts will be delayed until later this week because of circumstances beyond my control.

Readiness Watch for the Week of 11 April 2011

Monday, April 11th, 2011

Readiness Watch is a weekly publication intended to provide current, relevant, and actionable readiness information to people determined to be ready for whatever comes next, and especially for those people who are just starting their journey down the road to readiness. Readiness Watch will include observations, commentary, advice, links to resources, and related news.

I always welcome input from my readers, especially tips on information or ways to make this publication better. Feel free to contact me with information, advice, or tips or for ways you can support this effort.

Readiness Watch for the week of 11 April 2011

Previous Readiness Watch posts.

DLH

 

Be ready now: A 5 week recap

Monday, April 11th, 2011

Be ready now is a weekly post about things you can do right now to get ready for whatever might come next courtesy of Dennis L Hitzeman’s Readiness Weblog. You can find other posts in this series in the “Be ready now” category.

If you have been following these posts for the past five weeks, you will have noticed that, if you followed the suggested plan, you will have the following things on hand for immediate readiness:

 

At worst, depending on what you decided to buy, you might have spent several hundred dollars, but in fact, you could buy everything on this list for a couple of hundred dollars if you are savvy about how you spend. If you followed this plan, then you are probably now more ready than as many as 90 percent of the people in the United States are right now at the time of this writing.

If you did not follow these posts or the plan they suggest, consider doing so now. It’s never too early to be ready, but when disaster strikes, it is far too late.

Do you find this information informative and helpful? Feel free to contact me and let me know. You can also contact me about ways you can support this effort.

DLH

 

Readiness Watch for the Week of 4 April 2011

Monday, April 4th, 2011

Readiness Watch is a weekly publication intended to provide current, relevant, and actionable readiness information to people determined to be ready for whatever comes next, and especially for those people who are just starting their journey down the road to readiness. Readiness Watch will include observations, commentary, advice, links to resources, and related news.

I always welcome input from my readers, especially tips on information or ways to make this publication better. Feel free to contact me with information, advice, or tips or for ways you can support this effort.

Readiness Watch for the week of 4 April 2011

Previous Readiness Watch posts.

DLH

Be ready now: 3 things you can start doing this week to be ready for whatever comes next: Shelter

Monday, April 4th, 2011

Be ready now is a weekly post about things you can do right now to get ready for whatever might come next courtesy of Dennis L Hitzeman’s Readiness Weblog. You can find other posts in this series in the “Be ready now” category.

This week’s theme: Shelter

  • Immediate: Buy a tent. It doesn’t have to be a good tent, though quality cannot hurt. Make sure you have enough tent space for everyone in your readiness plan. After you buy a tent, buy tarps, rope, and tent stakes.
  • Intermediate: Is the place you live somewhere you can shelter in place? Is it livable without electricity or air conditioning? If not, what are your options?
  • Long-term: Consider stockpiling building materials, especially precut lumber and cinder block. Even if you don’t use them for construction, they may come in handy as collateral.

 

Do you find this information informative and helpful? Feel free to contact me and let me know. You can also contact me about ways you can support this effort.

DLH