Category: Points of interest

Emergency for Disaster~ Must Haves

Emergency preparedness is more important than ever. You don’t need to live in Tornado Alley to prepare for a disaster or home emergency—they can strike anyone, anywhere. In fact, a survey conducted by Allstate in 2014 found that 92% of Americans have survived a natural disaster of some kind. But despite the frequency of these events, fewer than 10% of Americans have taken basic preparedness steps like practicing an evacuation.

After a disaster strikes, it’s too late to mitigate the damage. Preparing in advance can help you respond to a disaster, keep you and your family safe from harm or hardship, and minimize the damage to your home or belongings. The following ten items are often overlooked in a traditional readiness kit, but they can make a significant difference when you’re responding to a crisis.

Fire Extinguishers

For homeowners, “the most common disasters are actually home fires,” says Greta Gustafson, senior associate of media relations for the American Red Cross. A fire extinguisher can stop a small fire in your home before it turns into a disaster, yet less than half of homes have this essential safety device. Even natural disasters like a flood or earthquake can ignite a house fire, making this item a must-have in any readiness kit.

Solar Lanterns

If 2017’s hurricane season taught us anything, it’s that prolonged power outages can compound the difficulties of a major storm event. Surprisingly, a reliable light source is often overlooked as a survival tool. Solar-powered lanterns offer light even when electricity is scarce. The Luci Light is an inexpensive and lightweight option for any emergency kit. Over 80,000 of these lights have been deployed to hurricane-stricken Puerto Rico, demonstrating the effectiveness of this smart little tool.

Board Games

Keeping morale up during a survival scenario is essential, and nothing lightens a tough situation like a familiar board game. These analog entertainment sources are a great addition to your kit since they can help restore a sense of normalcy and routine during a tough situation. If you’re packing a bug-out bag or vehicle emergency kit, consider a portable version of your favorite game or DIY your own ultralight game board out of felt.

Insurance

If you haven’t updated your insurance in a while, it may be out of date for your assets. A disaster is no time to worry about your insurance policy, so take action now by conducting a home inventory and updating your insurance policy to match the total value of your home and belongings.

Disposable Baby Wipes

A disaster can often mean limited access to clean water. And staying clean in a survival situation provides more than a morale boost for your bunkmates—it can help you avoid a medical crisis like contracting and spreading an illness. Disposable baby wipes offer a fast and simple alternative when clean water is scarce and are a perfect addition to a bug-out bag or toiletries kit. When you need them, you’ll be really glad they weren’t overlooked.

Paper Maps

If you’re forced to seek shelter or evacuate during a disaster, you’ll have no guarantee that your smartphone will work. A simple paper map of your town and the surrounding area is reliable in almost any condition. You can buy a waterproof map or laminate one yourself to ensure remains readable.

4-Way Sillcock Key

A sillcock key, often called a 4-way key, could be a lifesaver in a survival scenario. These simple steel tools open restricted water spigots, a common feature on buildings like rest stops, restaurants, malls, and other large buildings. With a sillcock key, you can turn these spigots on and gain access to reliable fresh water. For all the utility they provide, they take up almost no space in your preparedness kit.

Ziplock Freezer Bags

Ziplock freezer bags are a useful addition to any survival kit. Aside from their traditional role in keeping food fresh, these bags offer a waterproof storage solution for first aid kits, electronic devices, and valuables. They’re also good for carrying or storing water in a pinch, and they can even safely seal away important documents like birth certificates and passports.

Portable Satellite

Information is a vital resource during a disaster scenario. If the electricity goes out, a portable satellite dish affixed to a vehicle or RV can maintain a vital connection to news and weather reports. Unlike cable, a dish won’t fail during a widespread blackout, and it keeps you connected even if you have to evacuate the area.

Duct Tape

Duct tape may be more valuable than currency in an end-of-the-world scenario. Duct tape is useful for hundreds of different repairs, but it’s often overlooked as part of a medical kit. Duct tape makes an excellent surgical tape, hearkening back to its roots in WWII. It’s also useful for preventing blisters when applied to your heel, underneath your socks. Rolling a small length of duct tape around pencils, water bottles, or other round objects keeps a small amount within reach in every part of your kit.

These items can help you prepare for a disaster, but also remember that your greatest survival tool is your brain—practice your evacuation and survival routines with your family. Blue-sky planning is the best way to mitigate the impact of a disaster, so start preparing your emergency kit today.

About the author: Kylie is an East Coast gal currently residing in Salt Lake City, UT for work and play. As a freelance writer, she covers topics on lifestyle, travel, and technology. In her spare time, she enjoys great food and live music in the presence of good company. http://www.kyliefitch.com

Laugh a Little

First Aid~ DYK

Dragonflies

When the dragonflies see, seeing is not what they do exactly, but rather they feel. They feel the movement at a much wider angle than any human could even imagine, since their eyes are ball-like and they see a full range of 360 degrees. Each ommatidia is an eye in itself, capable of seeing anything right in front of it. This helps the dragonfly feel the movement anywhere around it.On the other hand, the dragonfly has a flattened surface just in front of its eyes, with a concentration of eye cells that come directly to the front. This helps her see the little mosquito that flies, before it becomes food. Other predators of the arthropod family, such as praying mantis and bees, have similar flattened fronts to help them see better as they fly.

The body of the dragonfly is supported by two pairs of very powerful wings that help it to float in the lightest breeze, but it can beat them quickly and strongly enough to fly even with a strong wind against it. Although these wings are transparent and appear to be quite fragile, they are actually much stronger than they might at first appear.The structure of the wings and the fact that they do not articulate like those of the butterflies and that can work independently, makes the dragonfly fly in all directions, up, down, left, right, forward and even backwards. As you can see, the hummingbird is not the only one that can go backwards.

DSC02369.JPG

Image of my father authorship with a Sony Cyber Shot.

The surfaces of dragonfly wings are not smooth. They have small pockets like crests that capture the slightest gust of wind to take flight. Although this rough surface poses a certain degree of aerodynamic drag, the dragonfly can move fast enough, and most importantly, have enough control in flight to make sure that if it can see its food, it can reach it. There are not many insects that escape their six legs once the persecution begins. To make it as simple as possible, the legs are positioned in such a way that they form a bag. In this way the prisoners are trapped with very little chance of escape.As the dragonfly flies a lot, it is necessary to both warm up and cool down, so it assumes the famous Obelisk pose. The muscles that flap their wings need to be hot at all times. In this way, they sunbathe as much as possible if they need to warm up and, on the contrary, if they need a little rest from the heat, they position their bodies in such a way that they get little or no direct contact with the sun’s rays.

Acrobats of the air:

They can reach a speed of about 72 kilometers per hour, this being a speed similar to the flutter of a hummingbird. However, the most surprising thing about this is that they achieve it with an amazing ease. Unlike other insects such as flies and mosquitoes; which reach much lower speeds, and need to perform 1000 and 600 beatings of wings per minute. Dragonflies only need about 30 beats per minute! And all without losing the elegance that characterizes them.And not only are they capable of achieving great speeds in flight. They are also capable of traveling great distances! Many species are migrating and usually group in large groups. However, among all of them, Pantala flavescens stands out, which is capable of transoceanic flights of more than 17,000 km.

Symbology: 

In Japan there is a great appreciation for dragonflies, being as dear as butterflies and small birds. In addition, it is very common to find popular groups that organize excursions to know and study them in their environment. But your appreciation, it’s nothing new. In fact, in some of the first armors of samurai, you can see taxa of dragonflies; for they symbolized power, agility, and above all, victory.In China they are associated with prosperity, harmony and good luck. Among the Native Americans are a symbol of happiness, speed and purity, since according to them they feed directly from the wind itself.

Upcycled idea for the week

Bowlers Into Lamps

Computer Tip of the Week

Mediterranean Diet~ some info- food list

The Cake…my daughter

Cake
My daughter and new son in law.
My daughter.

Great wedding folks.

Thought I’d share the cake, me and my husband made. The wedding theme was tie dyed.

Happy Fourth

I’ll see you on this side of the rainbow.

MwsR