Bartering For Preppers

Posted on March 20, 2013 by aptprepper

Bartering for Preppers is a Guest Post by Robert Creech

As everyone who engages in some form of prepping knows, it’s expensive. Most of us will never have all of the gear and resources we want, instead we prioritize and get by with what we can. However I’ve found that many people are leaving money on the table, so to speak, because they have skills (and maybe resources) that they aren’t fully utilizing. Yes, I’m talking about bartering.

You have to remember that every other prepper is like you; they’re trying to acquire skills and resources on a limited budget, to learn everything they can about self-sufficiency. They’re also people trying to make a living and get by, so any opportunity they have to barter, to gain something, is almost always welcome. How about you? Are you willing to teach someone a skill, or trade a service or resource you have?

Do you have a particular skill set that others might be interested in? Maybe you’ve become quite adept at apartment gardening and have perfected ways to grow essential plants in a terrace garden or from balcony planters. You would be surprised at the number of people in your area who would be willing to trade something they have for you to teach them how to start gardening, one of the fastest growing areas of interest among city dwellers.

Maybe you know how to can or preserve foods, how to reload ammunition, how to set snares for trapping, how to secure an apartment from intruders, how to make primitive weapons… almost everyone has skills or knowledge that others would like to have. If yours is academic knowledge, then you can put it in a guidebook or e-book, and offer it that way. And it may not even be prepping related, the skills or resources you have to barter. If you’re a mechanic or plumber you’ll almost certainly find people willing to barter their resources for your time or guidance on a project.

So how do you set it up? Craigslist is perhaps one of the greatest resources people have… the Barter Kings use it for a reason. You can list your skills or resources in two different sections… the first is the For Sale – Barter section, and the other is under Services. Simply write in what it is that you have to offer (or what you will do for them), and what it is you’re looking for. If you want someone to help you set up a solar oven, then say so. Perhaps you are looking for a new backpack because yours is too small, simply tell the reader what you can offer and what you’re looking to get.

More times than not people will contact you offering something other than what you asked for, but that is fine. Bartering is always good and maybe they have something else you can use, or that you can trade further. In fact you might be surprised to find that you like the art of bartering and meeting new people, and at how much you are able to learn along the way. Since you live in an apartment, maybe you’ll be fortunate and meet someone out of town who has property that you can use… for gardening or target practice.

And the final point to this whole bartering activity is perhaps the most important… you will be actively engaging in networking, building contacts and resources along the way, many of whom will be like-minded preppers. Before you know it you’ll be amazed at how much you can acquire and learn through bartering.

About the Author Robert Creech began a career in law enforcement in the early 1990’s, culminating in serving as the elected Sheriff of his county for two terms. He’s a graduate of two state law enforcement academies as well as many executive level training programs for law enforcement administrators. Robert writes almost exclusively on Squidoo; check out his latest article about Prepping. http://www.squidoo.com/prepping-preparedness

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Food Storage: Fridge and Freezer Facts and Fallacies

Posted on January 23, 2013 by aptprepper

aptfridge I was was helping with the after dinner cleanup at my cousin’s home last Christmas and as we were putting leftovers away, she asked me to check to make sure all leftovers were completely cool before putting them in the fridge. She said you should never place foods in the refrigerator until the food is completely cool or it will surely spoil.

Much of our everyday food storage is either in the fridge or freezer and we’d all like to avoid wasting food as much as possible. This conversation prompted me to start investigating the truth about ideas we’ve grown up with regarding storing food in the refrigerator and freezer.

1. “Placing warm foods in the fridge will cause spoilage.”

False, but there is a caveat. I found out that food should be refrigerated within two hours of cooking it, so it does not spoil. It is safe to place the food in the refrigerator when slightly warm, because the refrigerator thermostat will keep the inside of the fridge at a constant 40 degrees. However, you should not store a huge deep pot of hot food, since it will not cool evenly – you need to separate portions in smaller shallow containers to ensure that the food does cool properly.

2. “To keep bread fresher longer, keep it in the fridge and not the counter.”

False. I have actually tested this one. Bread gets moldy quickly here in Texas in the summer months, so I was looking for a way to make it last longer.

If you leave it in the counter, sliced bread (with preservatives) will last about a week, but fresh hard crusted bread either from the bakery or home made will only last for two days on the counter.

If you store bread in the fridge, it will dry out quickly and become hard. The best thing to do is store the bread in the freezer and thaw out the portion you will be using. Bread will keep well in the freezer for about three months. We’ve all heard this:

3. “If meats such as ground beef, chicken or beef have thawed out, you must use it right away and not refreeze it.”

The answer is not so clear-cut: it depends on how you thawed out the meat in the first place. If you thawed it out slowly: overnight in the refrigerator, or by soaking in cold (never hot) water, then you can safely refreeze the meat.

A couple of other ways to tell: If the food had been kept at a temperature of 40 degrees or lower, it is ok to refreeze. Also, if the food still has ice crystals, it is fine to refreeze.

Keep in mind that re-freezing lessens the quality or texture of the meat, so it is not a good idea to do this habitually.

However if you thawed the food out quickly in the microwave, it should be cooked as soon as possible.

If you have a power outage, and you are wondering whether it is safe to refreeze the meats that were in the freezer, the same rules apply: if the meat still has ice crystals, and the fridge temperature stayed at around 40 degrees, then it is safe to refreeze.

Another rule of thumb is, if the power was out less than four hours, and the fridge or freezer door was kept closed, then the food would still be safe.

4. “Never leave meat out in the counter to thaw.”

True. You must never leave meat to thaw on the counter, as it will thaw out unevenly: what happens is, the outer layer of the meat will warm up faster than the core. The warmed outer layer may breed harmful bacteria while sitting on the counter.

5. “Meat left in the freezer more than a year is unsafe to eat.”

False, but there is a reason why you should eat it within a year. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, as long as meat is kept at 0 degrees, it will keep indefinitely. Therefore, as far as safety, it is okay to eat meat that’s been in a freezer a year or two. However, keeping meat in the freezer longer than a year will degrade the quality of meat. The meat may get freezer burned and may not be as tasty, the more time it is frozen. In an emergency, you may eat it anyway, but at least you know it is still safe to eat.

6. “If your power goes out in a snowstorm, take the food outside and place in the snow.”

False. Placing perishable food out in the snow does not guarantee they will be safe to eat. Temperatures outside rarely remain constant: food can thaw outside, and the sun may warm up parts of the food causing bacteria to grow. The food can also come in contact with animals or insects. A better solution is to place the food in a cooler and pack it with snow. Or make your own ice by leaving water bottles outside to freeze and using those to keep your food cold.

7. “A full freezer or refrigerator is more energy efficient.”

True. An empty refrigerator or freezer uses more energy than one that is occupied. When a fridge or freezer is full, there is less room for warm air to flow in and the cool items inside keeps cool down any air that does come in. Keep them full, but not overly crowded with items that air cannot circulate around. If your fridge or freezer is empty, store bottled water in the fridge and partially fill 2-litter soda bottles and allow to freeze, while allowing some spaces in between. This gives you extra water for an emergency, as well as ice to keep your freezer cold longer in a power outage. You will never has to buy ice for picnic coolers either.

8. Wash fruits and vegetables before storing them.

False. Avoid washing fruit and vegetables until you are ready to eat them. The moisture will speed up the spoiling process. The best method I found to ward off decay is to wrap vegetables in paper towels then bag in plastic. The paper towels absorb moisture, allowing the fruits and vegetables to last longer.

9. Use all dairy by the “sell by” date or they are no longer good.

False. If stored in the refrigerator at a constant 40 degrees most dairy products stay fresh past the sell by date. Milk can stay fresh 3-4 days past expiration, and I have seen yogurt stay fresh a week or two past expiration. Milk can be frozen to make it last even longer: empty out a small amount before you freeze to allow for expansion. (Note: I am not an expert on dairy foods so your results may vary. Just sharing what I’ve observed.)

To test for freshness, drop the egg gently in a cup of water-if it sinks, it is still fresh, if it floats then it is bad. We’ve tested coating eggs in mineral oil to keep them fresh for months. If you coat them in oil AND refrigerate them, they will last even longer.

10. “If your power goes out, you can check if food has gone bad by the taste or smell.”

False. You cannot always tell by taste and smell – bacteria may have grown on the food that cannot be detected by taste or smell. Besides if you taste the food that has already spoiled you may get sick just from tasting it. Throw out any perishable foods that have been above 40 °F for 2 hours.

Researching this article taught me a lot about food safety. As much as I hate wasting food, sometimes events such as an extended power outage will happen and food goes bad even with the best of intentions. Your health is not worth risk of eating unsafe food. “If in doubt, throw it out!” is also good rule to remember.

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Do this One Tip and Avoid Wasting Money

Posted on April 21, 2012 by aptprepper

Last week I was paying bills when I noticed the electric bill was $25 higher than last month’s. I didn’t think our usage changed that much so I called the power company to find out what changed. I was right, our usage didn’t change that much. But one thing did change: the discount electric plan I had subscribed to had expired. I’m usually pretty good about keeping track of such things so I asked why wasn’t I notified? Well, it turns out I was notified– the company rep said they sent me an email 45 days before expiration to remind me to renew. I just didn’t pay attention.

I have separate emails for this blog (which a check a couple of times a day), another one for personal emails (checked once every night) and a third one for a “junk emails.” I looked through my personal emails- I had 51 unread emails, mostly from online stores announcing sales and such, and sure enough, buried in there was the email from the energy company. Arrggg! I wasted $25 from a cluttered email box! I could’ve used that cash to buy some more preps. Mr Apt Prepper was appalled I had 400 old emails just sitting there dating back a year. His email box only has about five items at a time.

I realized the same principle applies to physical clutter as electronic clutter- if you see it you need to:

act on it
file it
trash it

I sat there and cleaned out the entire email box by filing the important ones in various email folders and left only 20 outstanding emails that needed attention.

I tell everyone to de-clutter their apartment or home to avoid wasting supplies, but now I found I have to follow my one advice in regards to electronic clutter.

Clean out your email box and you may be surprised to find:

- deals and coupons on items you’ve been waiting for

- announcements of pricing changes

- expiring discount memberships

It’s a chore, just like organizing your home. but you’re better off doing it now before something gets missed.
An inexpensive but helpful tool to keep track of supplies (Iphone or Ipad users)

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Don’t forget to check out our friends at http://PreppingGuys.com for gear review and preparedness projects!

Don’t Throw it Out: Grow this Vegetable from Trash

Posted on March 14, 2012 by aptprepper

A couple of months ago, I posted about an Herb that was Grown from Trash that generated a lot of interest. The experiment worked so well I still have fresh green onions I can use anytime.

One of the comments (thanks Alison!) mentioned it is possible to try this with celery. So I decided to try it the next time I had celery.

I used up the celery and only the stump was left. Usually I throw this out in the trash, but this time, I saved it. I did cut it straight across so all stems were even.

Here is a photo on Day 1.

See the side view here.

I filled a shallow bowl with about 1/2 inch of water and left it on a sunny window. I added water every couple of days.

This is what it looked like on Day 10.

I left it another seven days and this is what grew:

The sides do get shriveled up but the middle stems keep getting taller.

I planted the whole thing in a pot and it continues to grow. The growth is not as rapid as the first two weeks but it will eventually grow a whole new celery plant that I can use.

There are other things that will grow such as carrots and potatoes, however I believe they need a bit more room and some other steps to successfully grow and harvest. Jack who runs Suburban Survival Blog suggested you can grow garlic just as easily. (Note: Fall is the best time to grow garlic.) I have seen old garlic can grow green shoots that can be planted. This proves that even with no budget for gardening, you can grow a few things.

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The Herb that was Grown from Trash

Posted on January 11, 2012 by aptprepper

This year I am going to make an effort to avoid wasting food. I made a salad and had used up a bundle of scallions, except for the root which I had left in the refrigerator for a couple of days. I was about to toss these soggy roots into the trash when I decided to see if they would grow back:

If you have never used scallions, they have a mild onion flavor and are usually chopped up for use in salads, soups or stir fry dishes. You can also mix them with chopped tomatoes and jalapenos for fresh salsa. Scallions are also known as green onions or spring onions.

Steps I took:

I removed the rubber band and set them in about 1/4 cup of water in a Styrofoam cup. After a couple of days, the roots grew and the green stem grew about an inch.

I took 3 of the roots and set them in dirt out in the balcony.

The other 3 I left in the water.

After about a week, the ones left in the water got wilted and the water smelled like rancid onions. I dumped those out.

The ones I stuck in the dirt grew a new set of green stems.

We had freezing temperature for a couple of days but luckily they survived. If you live in a colder climate, plant them in a small pot of dirt and leave it in a sunny window. Now they are ready to use for the next salad or stir fry. If I don’t use them up, I will try letting them dehydrate and use them dried.

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A Food Storage Mishap that may Require a Haz Mat Suit

Posted on December 17, 2011 by aptprepper

Several months ago, my friend Em (name has been changed to protect the not so innocent) and I recently got to talking about stocking up on food and she told me she was pretty confident she had enough food stored up. Em has one of those large walk-in pantries that can be filled from floor to ceiling, something alien to us apartment preppers. She is quite preparedness-minded herself; she’d been carrying around a full suitcase of backup clothes for the kids in the trunk of her car long before I even thought about emergency prepping. When she told me she wasn’t worried about food storage as she had more than enough, I could tell she did not want to get into too much detail so we left it at that.

Fast forward to the present, we got together and I asked Em how her day went. She said she had a rough day, as she and her husband had to clean up every inch of her entire pantry. I was intrigued, “What happened?” She said, “A couple of the cans high in the pantry shelf exploded and nasty, disgusting stuff flew all over the place. It smelled pretty rotten in there.”

She and her DH had to don a pair of gloves, some masks and some old clothes (practically a haz mat suit). They emptied the entire pantry, and swabbed it down with bleach solution. Turns out they had cans of food from 2002 that they had forgotten about. The cans got so old that they exploded, which means botulism toxins could have gotten all over the place. Well Botox may be something some people may want in their face, but botulism bacteria (or Clostridium botulinum) is quite dangerous around food.

Some quick facts about this deadly bacteria:

Thrives in low salt, low acid, high humidity environment, when food is stored without refrigeration
Can grow in canned foods that are damaged, warped or very old
Can enter the body through open wounds
Symptoms generally appear between 18-36 hours of eating a contaminated food, or possibly as early as six hours and up to 10 days of eating a contaminated food.
Symptoms include difficulty breathing, double vision, difficulty swallowing, stomach cramps, nausea, vomiting, weakness leading to paralysis
Infants can catch it from eating honey or corn syrup as their digestive tracts are not fully developed to handle these foods.
Treatment is the administration of a botulism anti toxin, as soon as possible to avoid complications
If you suspect botulism, immediately call 911 or go to the emergency room

Prevention

Throw away bulging, dented and old canned foods
If the canned or preserved food smells “off,” get rid of it
Never give babies under one year old honey or corn syrup, not even to taste

Back to my friend Em’s story. They threw out everything in that pantry. As they went through the cans, they wondered why they had stored stuff that no one in their family eats. Some cans were already getting puffy, but even the newer cans got thrown out. If any of the toxic liquid got even close, they went ahead and threw them out in double bagged construction bags. It wasn’t worth the risk of botulism.

Em is actually glad she realized their mistakes before an actual emergency. Had an emergency happened, they would have had nothing to eat. They realized their food storage was so out of date they needed to restock as soon as possible. They immediately went ahead and carefully shopped for foods they would normally eat, as well as basic ingredients such as rice, beans, pasta, sugar, oatmeal and other bulk foods that they can self seal in food grade buckets for long term food storage. This time Em is making sure they rotate their stocks. I told her I could not pass up the retelling of this story I’d have to blog about it. She figured if it helps someone else, then she doesn’t mind at all.

Freeze dried foods have their place in a well rounded food storage plan. Visit Shelf Reliance for a great selection:

Many stored foods require water for preparation. Whether bugging out or sheltering in place, you can never have enough clean water for survival: For your water purifier needs, please visit:

An inexpensive but helpful gift to keep track of supplies (Iphone or Ipad users)

Keep Track of Your Supplies with the Prep & Pantry App

Posted on November 8, 2011 by aptprepper

One of the challenges of preparedness is keeping track of your items and their expiration dates. Without an efficient tracking system, it is easy to forget how much of a certain item you have, when they expire, and what items need to be replaced.

That’s why I am excited to welcome Prep&Pantry.com as one of our sponsors! Doug, the creator of the app, a prepper himself, has found a way to keep track of food storage, first aid and preparedness supplies and their expiration dates. He created an app that works on the iPhone 4 or 3GS, an iPad 2 or the iPod Touch 4th generation.

I actually tried the app myself and it is very easy to use. By enabling online look-up, you can scan an item’s barcode and it will automatically fill in the item’s name. All you have to add is the item’s location, a tag (example: vegetables) and the expiration date. The location can be your storage pantry, bug out bag, car emergency kit, or anywhere you might keep storage items. You can view lists of your items alphabetically, by location or by expiration date. Priced very affordably, the app is efficient and user-friendly. They also have great customer service.

For more information about the app please visit Prep and Pantry by clicking on the link below (or the sidebar) for Prep&Pantry.com.

Prepping Chores to Do as You “Fall Back”

Posted on November 5, 2011 by aptprepper

Sunday, November 6th is the end of Daylight Savings Time for 2011, in which most of the country sets their clocks back by an hour.

A common chore that is recommended for the occasion is to check the batteries of smoke and carbon monoxide alarms throughout the house. Why not take it a step further and do a little maintenance on your emergency supplies:

Check the batteries in your flashlights, touch lamps and other emergency lighting and replace if the battery is looking weak. It is not worth it to wait until the battery is completely dead, as it will leak and ruin your equipment.
While your at it, check your watches, clocks, radios and anything else that needs batteries. If you have solar back ups, check them too and set them out, as they won’t work while you’re keeping them in a dark closet.
Examine your canned food and other stored foods and check their expiration dates. Use up the ones that are getting close to expiration and replace them this weekend.
Back up any new photos and documents you may have generated since the last time you backed up your computer. Add documents to your memory stick if you haven’t already.
Pepper spray has a shelf life of about 3 years or so. If you carry pepper spray, plan to replace them before they become inactive. You definitely want them to work properly when you need them the most.
Go through your First Aid kit and replace any expired medicines.
Check your “go bag” and make sure the clothes are appropriate for the current season. Replace any kids’ clothing that have been outgrown.

Even if your state does not participate in Daylight Savings Time, you will hear about it anyway, so just make it a point to do a supply and gear check this weekend.

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Putting together a “Go Bag?” Visit Survival Gear Bags, they have a great selection.

The Fine Line between Redundancy and Clutter

Posted on November 2, 2011 by aptprepper

“Two is one and one is none” is a survival maxim that we picked up early on when we started finding out about preparedness. The saying applies to keeping a backup for a tool or item at all times. For example, what if you only have one can opener, and a disaster happens. You need to open some canned food to feed your family, but your one and only can opener breaks. How are you going to open the canned food now? You can probably use your knife but it would have been much easier if you had that spare can opener.

Going a step further, if two is better than one, does that mean that three is better than two, four is better than three and so on? If you go along that line of thinking then you will have redundancy ten times over. But at what cost? Space, money and time are all finite, and you can only allocate so much. A person can go too far with this, buying multiples of one thing, yet leaving out something else that was just as important. The end result: clutter.

If you have space limitations, due to living in an apartment or a small house, you really don’t have a lot of room to be keeping multiples upon multiples of something, unless it’s consumable such as water, food and toilet paper for example. For consumables, you will need set a doable limit that the family can attain, given your own situation. For me, at the current location, I’d be comfortable with four months water, food, toilet paper, etc., and that is about all the room I have.

As for tools, I believe in having backups, but I against going overboard and keeping a lot of clutter. On the other hand, I would not want to be out of something that I need, in case the item or tool breaks or gets lost. I would take the saying as: if you have only one of something, you may end up breaking or losing it, so to be on the safe side, keep a backup.

Here are some examples of items I keep backups for:

Water purifiers: Because we cannot live without water, this is one area you will need backups on: Stored water (at least one gallon per person per day), and a way to purify water. We chose the Berkey Light Water Filtration (buy extra filters), our backpacking Lifesaver bottle, plus other methods such as chlorine bleach (with dropper)
Flashlights: both battery operated and hand crank
Cooking methods: Coleman portable stove and backpacking stove
Lanterns or lamps: battery operated and oil
Fire making: matches, magnesium stick
Fire starting: cotton balls with petroleum jelly, Wet Fire tinder
Communication: cell phone, weather radio

The list above is not all-inclusive, just citing some examples. You may have other ideas on how much of something to keep, and you may have more space. What about you, how much redundancy are you building into your stockpile?

You can never have enough clean water for survival: For your water purifier needs, please visit:

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Supply Check

Posted on July 26, 2011 by aptprepper

After you have been accumulating supplies for a few months, it is a good idea to do a supply check: take a few minutes to look over your supplies and check your equipment to make sure they are in working order.

We went through a large Rubbermaid container of miscellaneous emergency supplies and found some items no longer worked or were improperly stored. We had a Coleman lantern that I liked, since it gave off a pretty good light when turned on. When we checked it this time around, it no longer turned on. Upon checking the battery compartment, we found the D batteries had leaked all over and battery acid contaminated the entire workings. We ended up throwing it away since it was ruined. We checked our other lanterns and removed the old batteries. Lesson learned: do not leave batteries in your equipment unless you use the item frequently. Instead, keep your batteries in an easy to reach drawer or cabinet next to the flashlights and other battery powered lighting equipment. Only keep batteries inside one or two frequently used flashlights. In our house, we keep ready to use flashlights in our night stands and those get used pretty frequently.

In the next box we had our First Aid kit and we checked the contents and removed any expired medications. Having a few expired packets of pain reliever in the First Aid kit is inevitable, as you may not get around to using everything. I know this feels like a waste, but I like to think of it as a form of insurance. You were fortunate enough to have nothing happen to you, but you would have had the medicines in case it did.

Checked the portable propane stove and found the propane canister was not attaching well so the stove would not turn on. At first I thought, oh no, we need another stove. But my husband said it just needed a new part: the regulator (the attachment between the stove and the propane canister) He went to the sporting goods store and picked up a new regulator. Now it is as good as new.

It seems like we just got started our preparedness journey and things should all be in good working order since they are fairly new. But that is not always the case. Go ahead and check anyway. You want to make sure your equipment works before you find yourself in an emergency. Do it now, while you can easily run to the store to replace parts or replenish used or expired supplies.

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Family Preparedness in an Apartment Setting by Bernie Carr

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