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!



Redundancy is all about having a backup. Sometimes even a backup to your backup. I wrote about the lesson I learned Three is Two, Two is One, One is None. There is supreme serenity in knowing you have a backup plan. As I was sifting through my blog posts and comments tonight, it hit me:

What would I do if Blogger crashed and all my posts and comments were lost?

Me: "*&^^%^&%^%@%@&$%*^%(*^(* !!!!!!!!!"

Don't tell me its not a possibility to lose everything, even if it IS owned by the mighty Google. I've written enough term papers to know computers can and WILL crash just when you are editing your final draft. Always have a backup of your work. So, I thought I would do a post about backing up a blog.  Fortunately, there are some easy options.

1. Email it to yourself. After completing your latest, greatest post...cut and paste it into an email to yourself. I've had the same email address for several years and being able to use a "search" function for a specific email has done wonders for my memory. This is only good for keeping a copy of the actual written post, not the comments, images, ads, etc.
   
2. Make a full copy. Windows users can use the free HTTrack, "the web site copier."  This program will create a fully working, interlinked local copy of your blog for browsing offline. Use this if you ever want to hand out copies of your blog, like SurvivalBlog does for $19.95 as a sort of archive reference. If you have a family blog, full of family pictures and stories, you can burn your copy to dvd and hand it out as Christmas presents. Mac users can use the free app WebGrabber and do the same thing. Note: these options download EVERYTHING on your blog, all your ads, images, links, etc.
3. Save it via XML. Use Blogger's built-in Export Blog feature by clicking the Settings tab once you are in your blogger Dashboard. This feature downloads your blog in XML format (aka Blogger Atom format) which allows you to upload your blog to other blog platforms (moving to WordPress or your own hosted site.) I've downloaded the file but I've never tried to upload it to another blog platform. My guess is that it will only transfer your blog posts and (maybe) images. Not your sidebar ads, layout, css, etc

You've put a lot of hours into writing down your memoirs. It would sure be a BIG disappointment to lose all that hard work now. Do yourself a favor and make it a habit to perform regular backups. Set a reminder in your smart phone alarm or write it down in your daytimer. Make it at least a monthly routine and you'll have one less thing to worry about.

Do YOU have another way of backing up your stuff? Post it in the comment section below.

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.


We've found a terrific school that we've used for about four years now. We've gotten to know the teachers and the curriculum is successful. The problem is going to be that the school is 16 miles one way, from our house.

If we get 10 mpg in our Suburban, and I'm UNDERestimating, then that's three gallons per day for a round trip. At $5 per gallon, we're talking $15/day just to take two of our six girls to school. Five days a week means $75/week or $300/month just to go to school. $6/gal gas would cost $360 per month. There is no bus system to our neighborhood.

Theoretically, if I buy an older Toyota that gets an estimated 30mpg the math would change. It would then only take ONE gallon of gas to get the girls to school and back, as opposed to three gallons. At $5/gal, that saves me $10/day, $50/week, $200/month (using 4 weeks in a month for simplification).

Most decent Toyotas/Hondas that I've seen on CraigsList are selling for around $1500-$2500. The midpoint being $2000, the breakeven point for me would be at 10 months. Saving $200 a month in gas for 10 months would equal the $2000 it cost to buy the economical car.

I wish I had some historical data that could help me predict how long the gas prices will skyrocket before landing back into reasonable levels.