Wait!  What??? Doesn’t everyone have a stash of food in their basement? I talk about having food storage all the time like it’s something that all normal people do.  I have to remind myself that the idea of having a food supply is alien to many and sounds very doomsday-zombie-apocalypse-ish. Why else would anyone have…

The time to prepare is now As sure as winter follows autumn, winter is sure to bring at least one power outage to someone this year. There can hardly be a worse time to be without heat or light than during the winter. Prepare now for those winter outages by storing non-electric heat and light.…

The end is near. It’s all downhill. It’s SHTF time. Time to kiss civilization good-bye! Just watch the news. News stories of political and social unrest, financial uncertainty, weather and climate disasters and an on-going pandemic. It’s no wonder that many people are panicking (or near panic.) It really does look like The End is…

For some, prescription medication is a matter of life or death. If you have a medical condition that requires you to regularly take medication, you should consider having an extra reserve of those essential drugs. Good reasons to have a stockpile of medications During a disaster you may find it hard to refill a prescription.…

How will you and your family communicate if there is a local disaster or regional crisis? We’ve become so accustomed to phones, especially cell phones, that we almost never give a second thought to how we might communicate if phone service were disrupted. It’s more common now to bury phone landlines, which makes them less…

From FEMA to Red Cross to prepper sites across the internet, everyone agrees: the first thing you should do to be prepared for an emergency it to have a 72-hour kit (or bug-out-bag) for each family member. Now you can go all out and buy a ready-made kit from any number of on-line sites, but…

Thinking about putting together a 72-hour kit for family members? In addition to the basics found in this post, let me give you a few pointers to take your kit to the next level. In no particular order, here are few tips and tricks to help you build an awesome 72-hour kit. Pictures Those who…

Should you worry about a pandemic? A few years ago there was a lot of buzz in the news about Swine Flu (H1N1) epidemics and quarantines. Before that the concern was Bird Flu and before that it was SARS. There’s no way to know with certainty how much of a threat any of these diseases…

September is National Preparedness Month. It’s a great time to evaluate your own level of preparedness and see what preparedness plans and services your city or county has. How are you going to celebrate National Preparedness Month? Here are some ideas: Find out about Preparedness plans in  your area. Every community should have an Emergency Response…

Homemade solar oven As promised, here are pictures of the solar oven that I made. It cost me about $10 for the foil, duct tape and piece of glass. (The boxes were free, of course.) I made a “handle” to pick up the glass using duct tape. But the heat melted the stickiness and the…

Winter can be very unforgiving and a test of our preparedness plans. Are you ready for what winter might bring? This month our goals are designed to make sure that you and your family are prepared for Mother Nature’s worst. Start with a family plan Plan what you will do when a blizzard hits. What…

A power outage can be stressful. If you have prolonged power outage, you will be glad for a hot meal. What do you have planned for cooking if you can’t use your stove? This month’s goal will help you be better prepared for power outages. No power? No problem. Here are some of the more…

If you have a 72-hour kit… Congratulations! You have taken an important step to being prepared. But it’s not enough to build a 72-hour kit and then just put it in the closet and forget it. You also need to check the kit periodically, preferably twice a year. If the first time you test your…

100 Things You’ve probably seen The 100 Things That Will Disappear when the SHTF. Or 72 things To Stock Up On or 50 Things To Always Have on Hand, Take your pick, there are a lot of Internet articles along this vein. Well, here’s my list. But it’s not really a list for apocalyptic end-times.  It’s more…

This is important! You need to talk to your neighbors about preparedness. Don’t wait. You can not do emergency preparedness by yourself. You might, maybe be able to get through a small, very localized crisis without relying on neighbors or without neighbors needing your help. But if you experience any kind of major disaster in…

We often talk about the need for heat and light during an outage. This is especially important if the outage occurs during the winter, when going without heat could be dangerous. It seems like a generator would be the natural answer to this kind of emergency, right? But a generator can be expensive and it’s…