Rocket Stove Concept #1

Backyard Projects - Rocket Stoves

After digging around my 100 year-old shed I found a collection of cinder blocks that were used at one point to make steps off our patio and thought to myself, "With these I think I can make a small rocket stove."

After a couple minutes of different configurations I came up with one that actually allowed for a fire chamber and chimney setup and it worked pretty well. One wood match on some yard debris (which I have plethora of) in the chamber and it was off and cooking!

Next up will be a much heavier duty stove that I plan and making as a fixture in our backyard and also will be a lot safer by being surrounded by stone and away from anything that could burn.

Hodgepodge Cooking - Breakfast or Lunch Concept

• Sliced Italian sausage
• Shredded cheddar
• Spanish rice
• Black beans
• Spinach
• Salsa

All in a spinach tortilla with Goya Guava nectar. 

Never underestimate a man's ability to throw together random leftovers from the fridge...

Alternate Heat - Winter Months Part III

[Last minute changes]

So I've run into an issue with converting my less than efficient fireplace with an exterior-wall chimney into a super-heating machine. My new wood stove with included blower, being as small as it is... is still too big. Just small enough to be inserted, but after that you'd never get your hands in there to attach a lined chimney to it. So... back to plan B!

Back a couple months I got myself a barely used wood stove and now I think I'll be using it this season and in the room I originally wanted to utilize one in. Instead of heating my den at the far end of the house I'll be heating my living room, which is more central to where we spend most of our time in the homestead. Not only that, the floor above it is where our bedrooms are located so with enough heat it should transfer upstairs a bit as well - especially if we cut registers into the floors for the heat to travel up.

Luckily a local vendor is going to assist with the process and make sure the outside double-walled chimney will be up to code when being run up the side of our house. More on this soon...

Ebola Virus in 2014

[Dangers of the Modern World]

Long have I pondered and even conceptualized a post-apocalyptic world - natural disasters, global economic collapses, the ever-popular zombie hordes, but not Ebola.

The Ebola virus is something else entirely. It's incredibly deadly with a 50-90% mortality rate and although it is not an airborne virus much like SARS it is still extremely contagious through food, fluids (even semen) and close contact. Since its discovery in 1976 there have been at least 7-8 major outbreaks, but none as bad as the current 2014 one, which the World Health Organization now estimates at least 20,000 being infected before it can be properly contained due to dense pockets of population, lack of education and knowledge, and poor infrastructure in parts of West Africa.

Looking back at August 1976
In Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo) the first recorded victim - village school headmaster Mabalo Lokela was touring an area near the Central African Republic border along the Ebola River (from which the virus is named). On September 8th he died from the disease first thought to be the similar Marburg virus. After the WHO had helped contain the Ebola virus infection there was 318 cases and 280 deaths in Zaire - a mortality rate of 88%.

The 2013/2014 current outbreak is only the second case of the Ebola virus infecting over a country's borders, the first time being in 2001-2002 between Gabon and Republic of Congo, which also marked the first time the virus had been recorded in the current country of the Congo.
 

From: http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/07/31/world/africa/ebola-virus-outbreak-qa.html

Not only is this the worst outbreak of the Ebola (EBOV strain) virus in terms of pure number of cases and deaths, it's also the fastest and widest-spreading outbreak thus far of any of the  known strains. It's been reported in four countries in West Africa with an overall mortality rate of 64% with over 3,000 deaths (as of late August 2014). Although the chances of the infection spreading outside of the African continent is somewhat limited it is still a possibility via air or sea transport as the symptoms sometimes don't present themselves until a couple weeks after initial transmission.

Most First World countries do have multiple fail-safes in place to prevent massive epidemics as well as the ability to transmit news and media very quickly (if the government is operating correctly, that is). In the United States the CDC and military have multiple planned scenarios and fail-safes, but still you never know...

Public awareness is of the utmost importance on a local and global scale when events like this take place. In the U.S. especially it's too easy to pass over an internet article or change the channel on TV when news like this comes up. People need to take an active interest as the whole zombie sub-culture has historically shown that a lack of public awareness will inevitably be the end of us all. Quite frankly something like this has already happened due to a long period of little to no public awareness in the U.S. Can you guess what it was? How about a little thing called HIV? By the time HIV\AIDS was properly understood it was basically too late. As of now the death toll is over 30 million and growing.

Like times of specific flu (ex. H1N1) strains being prevalent being extra hygienic is always important. Wash your hands as much as possible, don't share food or drink and generally be careful with close contact with others. As I mentioned earlier the five known strains of Ebola are not airborne, but if someone coughs hard enough they will expel saliva which could contain the virus if they were infected so be weary. Basic rule of thumb would be to take the precautions everyone followed during the 2009 Swine Flu pandemic, which killed 14,286 people globally and 3,642 in North America alone - one of which was a dear childhood friend of mine.

Be safe and be mindful of your surroundings and be aware of developing news.

"Survival Foods"

Blog Additions
Food

A new addition to the Broadminded Survival page has come! Combining my interest for "survivalism" and my never-ending interest and knowledge in food has birthed a new aspect to this blog: Broadminded Survival Food Reviews. It's a simple concept where I give brief reviews and descriptions of good, storable foods that anybody can buy on a budget all for your knowledge. Yep. Just for you.

I look at all aspects of my bizarre collection of pantry items as well as going out and trying new things when I find them and review them based on 6 basic ratings: Price, Shelf Life, Transportability, Nutritional Value, Taste and finally my Overall score and thoughts.

Sure I talk about a lot of things, but we all still need to eat, right?

Check it out here: Broadminded Survival Food Reviews

Survivalism in Fiction - Writing My Own Apocalypse

For as long as I've been writing (spanning back before high school) I've pondered scribbling down ideas about the end of the world and the few survivors left and their inevitable struggle. 
Of course now with T.V. shows like Doomsday Preppers, Falling Skies, and The Walking Dead, and films like The Book of Eli and The Road center stage it's certainly a concept much more accessible to the masses. 
In college when my writing began to really take form I found that even there I couldn't quite spread my wings and flap on the subject. Not that it was inappropriate, but it just wasn't the right time. I dabbled in some ideas in college though and as my writing (and knowledge) matured over time I found that I could put together stronger and more realistic stories on page.

Cormac McCarthy's novel The Road I feel is still one of the most striking and realistic depictions of the end-all-be-all end of the world story. At the other end of the spectrum in the same genre I read Patriots: A Novel of Survival in the Coming Collaspe by James Wesley Rawles, which is certainly a much different take on that end of the civilized world. As an actual composed and collected story Cormac McCarthy's wins by a mile, but Rawles does have a lot of interesting technical and logistical information that's incredibly fascinating. I found myself less interested in the characters in their journey for survival, but more so in the equipment they utilized or the tactics they used to defend themselves. While reading I thought to myself "hey that's a pretty good idea on how to secure that door," or "that's a pretty efficient way to store ammunition."

I think finding a middle ground between stories like these is where I'd like to go - whether it'd be a novella, full-length novel or even a screenplay for film or television. To be honest I have been brewing a TV pilot since 2009, but I would like to maybe try my hand at the survivalist angle. I just wish my motivation and skill was more present earlier on because now it isn't a fresh subject anymore. It's a familiar idea in a sea of stories just like it. I know it hasn't been "new" in a LONG time (i.e. Mad Max. 1979), but now it's a pop culture statement.

At this point I think I'd just like to be able to say: "Yes, I did write that and yes I was inspired by X, Y and Z and I'm happy I was able to do it," and have people say I sure remembered him and his work back then. To be acknowledged for bringing at least a new or improved opinion to the table of survival that the world can digest and nod their heads to. But it isn't all about recognition, it's also about getting my opinion out there too, hence Broadminded Survival. It's an external venue for my own thoughts because when I think about things like this most of the day while I'm at work or in bed watching T.V. with my wife I feel like I'm going to explode sometimes. I have to get it out there in some fashion. Whether it's me sketching drawings in a notebook, writing micro fiction or short stories just for myself or working on this blog what it comes down to is that I need to express myself. It's cathartic to say the least and when you have this much pent up inside you all the time it's better to let it out and share it.