When you're living out in the country, far away from the city, it's important to be prepared for anything. When I was a child, we used to lose power to the house basically every time it stormed too hard. Sometimes it would flicker then come back on, and sometimes it would be out for a couple hours and we would just go to bed early or pick up a book or a board game instead of watching a movie. As a result, there were certain precautions that we took every time it rained. And that's just how life ... [ Read More ]
Top 11 Items to Barter With
Preparedness has a special place in our hearts here at Old Fashioned Families, since we are all about being self-sufficient. While there are a lot of misconceptions about preppers, namely just how intense they are, in reality they've got the right idea. Being prepared to survive is not all about the world ending— though preppers would be the most equipped— but rather surviving any kind of adversity that life throws your way. This could mean a natural disaster, losing your job, or even war. If ... [ Read More ]
Non-Food Items You Should Always Have Handy
Prepping is all about being, well, prepared. It isn't necessarily about the end of the world barreling towards us, as many people probably think, but about being prepared for all types of emergencies— bad weather, losing your job, or even an economic depression. Most often, preppers start with food and water— which is great, because obviously you can't live long without those, but other items are often overlooked. So, I compiled a list of some non-food items you should try to have handy in ... [ Read More ]
10 Best Foods for Power Outages and Emergencies
Whether you consider yourself a prepper or not, power outages happen in the winter, and preparing for an emergency situation is never a bad idea. I remember we had a huge snowstorm here in the Midwest in 2007 or so, and some places lost power for almost two weeks during that time. We lived in the country and so, while we lost power for just under a week, we were perfectly fine. Our stove was gas, and we could melt snow for water so things were just fine, if not a little boring. So, with ... [ Read More ]
How to Prepare Your Home for Winter
With winter creeping in here in the Midwest, I am stuck in that weird transition period where I drive to work with my heat on and when I get off work I roll the windows all the way down! Alas, I can't be quite so careless with my thermostat at home, or our utility bill would be through the roof. So, slowly but surely, I've started to winterize my house for the coming months. I am fairly new at this, so I'd like to share with you some things I already do as well as some things I've discovered, ... [ Read More ]
6 Misconceptions about Preppers
I'd be willing to bet that unless you are a prepper, most of what you know about preppers is wrong. You might be familiar with one of several "Doomsday Prepper" shows or a survivalist show featuring people like Bear Grylls. And, while those shows and such are exciting and fun to watch, that's not at all what preppers are all about. Prepper Misconceptions They are paranoid and/or conspiracy theorists I blame television completely for this, undoubtedly the most common misconception. Preppers ... [ Read More ]
How Do You Start Prepping?
If you've looked into becoming a prepper at all, then chances are you've come across sites showing you how to become completely independent, and articles written by people who just tend to come off even more paranoid than they are prepared. Some of these people spend thousands of dollars (and recommend you do the same) simply because they are convinced that the world will end suddenly and they will be forced to fend for themselves. To me, that's not what prepping is about. While that scenario ... [ Read More ]
Homemade Windshield De-Icer
This winter has been a rough one for some places in the US and further north, and I doubt we've seen the last of winter. Where I live, we're getting the first big snow of the year this week, so I thought I'd post a quick recipe for a homemade and chemical-free de-icer for your windshield! You can either use this the night before or spray on top of the ice to help it melt a little faster when you warm your car up in the morning. ... [ Read More ]
Recovering and Passing on Lost Skills
As a culture we tend to live in the moment. While in one sense this is not a bad thing, when living in the moment means not thinking about potential outcomes in our future, we are at risk of leaving our children ill-prepared to meet their future. History shows that disasters do happen, and when they do, will future generations have the skills they need to weather those disasters? I have heard so many people say, that will never happen…. Perhaps not in our lifetime, but eventually? ... [ Read More ]