Using sound judgment to be more self-reliant.
“Living Ready Pocket Manual – First Aid Fundamentals for Survival” is a new book by James Hubbard, M.D., M.P.H., aka The Survival Doctor. You may remember my reviews of the Survival Doctor e-books, “The Survival Doctor's Guide to Wounds” and “The Survival Doctor's Guide to Burns”. Now Dr. Hubbard has come out with a brand new, extremely practical addition to every home library and preparedness kit.
It's winter, you always *planned* to get supplies if the power went out. Now it's below zero and the power just failed. What do you do when a winter storm leaves you without power? This post contains ideas for winter storm survival while sheltering in your home, but many of the ideas could be adapted for elsewhere, especially the section on cold weather clothing. Plan NOW instead of trying to remember all this when you are freezing and the power is out. [Read more…]
If you can cook in a dutch oven you can cook anywhere and anyplace–literally and figuratively. Yes, you can cook indoors and outdoors, in a stove, over a fire, in a hearth, on a wood stove, even in a sun oven, which is all pretty amazing. But there is something about that knowledge that spills into other parts of your culinary life. Maybe, it's the nostalgic images of our ancestors cooking over an open flame in a dutch oven that gives you confidence that the way has been paved, perhaps it's simply the knowledge that if you can't get it to work the way you want with one method you can find another, or maybe it's just the attitude of if they're hungry they'll eat it as people have done for centuries because what is cooking in the dutch oven is what's for dinner.
Dutch ovens can be made of ceramic, clay, or cast iron. I will be focusing on cast iron dutch ovens in this post as they are the most common and most versatile dutch ovens. [Read more…]
You have that nagging feeling you aren’t prepared – but you don’t know what to do, where to start, or maybe even what to prepare for. Take a deep breath and think what caused you to start thinking about getting prepared. Worrying can wear you out and freeze you into inaction. The best remedy is to take action.
Think through what the real risks are for you. Start with the most likely event first, and prepare for that. In this post we'll discuss the preparedness basics that everyone should cover. [Read more…]
It’s Common Sense Preparedness Link Up time again. This week the skies have opened up and it's rained for three days straight. It's chilly, too. Most of the garden is coping pretty well, except for the transplants that are still waiting patiently to be set out. Ah well. At least it's not freezing or flooding, and it's supposed to warm up and dry up a bit this weekend.
Today's post is about planning, because without a plan, it's pretty hard to get anything done. If you have plans you can build around them and can prepare the supplies and materials you need to implement them. A plan gives you a fighting chance. Even when things don't go as expected, you've still got a basic strategy for getting things sorted out and back on track. [Read more…]
