Protect Your Investment - CDN Freezer Alarm $8

Protect Your Investment - CDN Freezer Alarm $8

Bought the CDN Audio Visual Freezer Alarm for our backup freezer.  When we had an addition added on to the back of our home, the electrical part must not have been done up to code because every now and then we trip a breaker.  I think it is when we run the air conditioner in the additional room AND use the treadmill.  Problem is, the outlets that it trips also run the standup freezer where all our backup frozen meat is store.

The other day, it tripped and Wifey figured it out about 24 hours later.  Let's just say there was some blood running down the inside of the freezer door thanks to the thawing.  I have had the freezer alarm on my Amazon Want List for a while as a redundancy check.  After this incident, and the fact that it was only $8, I went ahead and purchased it.

It is a very simple mechanism.  Powered by two AA batteries.  You simply stick it near the hinge side of the door on the outside and run a cable sensor inside the freezer.  Give the gizmo 20 minutes to get used to the new temperature and then turn it on.  It will let out a shrill alarm sound when the inside sensor raises in temperature.

Peace of mind for $8.  Gotta love that!

~OJD

How To Back Up Your Blog

As discussed previously, redundancy is your friend. If you only have one copy of ANYTHING, rest assured something will happen to it. Do you have ONE set of car keys? Probably not. How about your house keys? I doubt it. Why? Because we've all "misplaced" them at one point or another. I told a story about a person who "lost" her keys at a gas station, somewhere between Phoenix and San Diego...with three toddlers in tow. Frantic!

Gasoline Will Be $6 per Gallon by 2012

I've been prepping for over a year now and have quite a few things squared away, as it were. The impass that I'm coming to now is: where do we go from here?

In a prior post, I mentioned my redundancy plan. We have most major bases covered. Of course, you could never have too much of anything so we'll continue to stock up on food and ammo.

I'm just wondering what we'll do when gas hits $6 a gallon. I'm not sure it will be viable to drive the kids to school.

Two is One, One is None...Be Redundant.

Two is One, One is None...Be Redundant.

Redundancy is key to serenity. Its when you have only one important item and it gets damaged, lost, etc that you find out how important redundancy is. Here's a short list of important items and how I've built in redundancy.

Income- (1) My main job (Sonography, Radiography). (2) My part-time job (See #1, different hospital). (3) My wife is nationally certified in Radiology and can work if necessary.

Income skills- (1) Trained in Sonography. (2) Trained in Computed Tomography. (3) Trained in Radiography.

Transportation- (1) The family Suburban. (2) The family Jeep. (3) My auto insurance includes rental car coverage should one of my cars becomes disabled.

Food- (1) Our biweekly grocery run. (2) Our garden and short term food storage. (3) Our long term (25+ years) food storage.

Water- (1) House/city water. (2) 55-gallon drums x 12 in the backyard. (3) Bottled water in the garage.

Shelter- (1) Our house. (2) Our family retreat 2+ hours north of town (3) a retreat property with no shelter but we have tents, sleeping bags, etc for now.

Entertainment- (1) Electronic games. (2) A ton of movies/cartoons stored on a hard drive. (3)MacBook with solar panel recharger.

Water filtration- (1) Berkey water filter with 2 black Berkey ceramic filters + pf2 x 2 filters. Filters 3 gallons per hour. (2) Sand filter. (3) Boiling/plastic bottle in the sun sterilizing.

Cooking- (1) Indoor stove & microwave. (2) Outdoor propane bbq grill x 2. (3) Dutch ovens to cook on charcoal/wood fires.

Areas I need to work on:

Communication- (1) Five cell phones in our immediate family. (2) I want to purchase a mobile ham radio for the Jeep and a home ham radio for the house. (3) Garmin Nuvi handheld sets.

Food caches- I only have food stores at our main house. A majority of our meat is stored in a standup freezer ($10 freezer alarm on Amazon). If we lose power, there goes the meat! (searching for propane freezer). Can also store food in a locker at work for secondary cache or at our retreat property up north. (Update: filled work locker with cans of Campbell's soup. Headed up North this weekend to begin stocking BugOut location.)

Firearms- One lonely shotgun :-(

Excretion- Two bathrooms in the house. Need porta-potty ($22 on Amazon) just in case there are plumbing issues. Last resort would be to dig a latrine. (Update: have added the bucket porta-potty above)

Power- Totally dependent on the grid with the exception of my little solar charger (made for cell phones and laptops). Would like a gas generator (several on Amazon) and maybe, just maybe, a solar-powered portable system.

Washing Clothes- Aside from our indoor washer/dryer, that's it. I'd like to add a WonderWash. Last option would be a washtub. (Update: have added WonderWash x 2)

What did I forget?