Welcome to our free e-newsletter, Do-It-Yourself Preparedness.

We our happy to announce a new look to our preparedness website, www.yellowstonetrading.com. We still have all the same great products and some new ones as well. We also have a variety of products on sale in time for the holiday season.

You can rarely go wrong with giving gifts that help the receiver be more self-sufficient, especially at this time. These items as things that everyone needs and very few people have. Please take a few moments and visit our website now.

IN THIS ISSUE:

1) Overcoming Inertia – How to Get Started or Why doesn’t getting prepared for emergencies ever get to the top of my to-do list?

2) Excerpts from the Chapter 8 on “Light” from Do-It-Yourself Emergency Preparedness by Arlene Hoag.
This is the season of lights. Be sure you do not find yourself in the dark in case the electricity goes off for any reason.

3) Questionnaire – How Prepared Are You for the Unexpected?
Take a minute to ask yourself these questions.

4) What’s On Sale
Click here to see our sale prices on books, flashlights, AlpineAire food and water filters.

5) Preparedness stories

For our complete catalog visit www.yellowstonetrading.com

Overcoming Inertia– How to Get Started or Why doesn’t getting prepared for emergencies ever get to the top of my to-do list?

Life is busy for nearly all of us. Maybe even way too busy for many of us. We are stretched thin in the time category as well as financially and consequently emotionally. If we do have a spare moment, we are probably watching our favorite new TV series to help relax and de-stress from an overfull workday. We certainly aren't thinking about taking that first step in our emergency preparedness, ie self-sufficiency plan.

We may think about it briefly as we watch the news, seeing other unprepared families suffer through disasters in all parts of the world. We may glance at the wind-up flashlight buried in a catalog of fashionable outdoor clothing and say to ourselves, "I'd like to have one of those." We know getting prepared for the unforeseen is something we "should" do. But we don't. Why not?

(Click here to read the rest of the article)

Whenever I do a talk about preparedness, I always like to suggest that one fun and simple way to see how you are doing on your emergency preparations is to set aside a 24 hour period (or even 12 hour) and turn off the circuit breaker bringing power into your house. See what it’s like to be without electricity, especially electric lights, the TV and computers. Get the whole family involved. Be sure to have a notepad available to write down all the things you think of during this experiment that you would really like to have on hand ahead of any real emergency.

Before you do this, read the chapter on Light in Do-It-Yourself Emergency Preparedness. Here are some excerpts from this chapter to get you going. (.pdf)

The Preparedness Questionnaire

*This list of 20 questions is not meant to overwhelm you with all there is left to do. Even if you can say yes to one or two of the questions, you are on your way and getting started is often the hardest part.

Have you discussed disaster preparedness with your family?

Do you know where your family will meet outside your home in case of an emergency?

Do you know how to turn off all utilities (gas, electricity, water, etc.)?

Do you know where your family records are?

Do all members of your family know how to call for help?

(You have read 5 out of the 20 questions. Click here to go on to the rest)

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What to do first? Click here to see our complete catalog and especially what’s on sale at this time. www.yellowstonetrading.com
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Preparedness Stories

Read the following short comments from some of our readers.
Please email us your own comments or questions as you make your way to getting prepared. Orders1@yellostonetrading.com

This is what we have been doing. We are aiming to be more prepared for the uncertain future ahead. A couple of years ago me and my husband read your book (No Such Thing as Doomsday) and I have been reading other books on many topics including preparedness, survival in the wilderness, self-sufficient living, seed-saving, edible plants, and recently, the great depression.
This is all good but we still have a lot to actually DO. But we're doing what we can with limited finances and the oncoming winter. We recently moved further out of the city to a relatively less populated area, 1 hour out instead of 10 minutes. We bought a hand pump for our well for the next time the power goes out and we have no water. We try to keep extra food in the house and buy in bulk where feasible.
We have a small amount of candles and matches. We have a regularly updated 72 hour kit. We have a very basic thrown together car kit. We have some heirloom seeds (haven't actually used any yet). We keep our gas tank no lower than 1/2 full and have a couple of gas tanks filled up also. We just bought a wood burning stove and chainsaw to cut the wood. I try to keep up with world events as well as recently the world financial situation. I have lots of dreams for our future self-sufficiency, but one step at a time. I look forward to hearing what other families are doing.

Fantastic. Thank you for inspiring me to be prepared! I would like to give you & your book/website as a reference for my neighborhood newsletter. Our city is in the process of developing a disaster plan and is telling residents so be self sufficient for at least 10 days. I would like to quote you on water rotation I believe you picked new years and July4th as an example on your radio interview. That idea really hit home for me having a clean water supply this is easier than we make it out to be.

In Toronto last week there were over 70,000 people without power for 72 hours. What a coincidence! Your book arrived just in time to help. Water and food were the first things on your list and so I made sure to have plenty of both on hand. I had not updated the batteries on two of our flashlights so they died after about an hour but we had lots of candles so we made do. One of the things that your book talks about is a wood burning stove and though we have considered it in the past, after 3 days with no electricity, it has moved to the top of the, "Things to do" list.