Empty store shelves.
Pandemic. Lockdown. War looming. Money in the bank.
What about stocking your own #foodbank?
History repeats itself, and we can learn from history. We still have among us people who survived the rationing and shortages of World War II. Maybe they never talk about it (move on! live in the now!), or maybe they do, and we roll our eyes at Grandma's stories of thrift and industry, resourcefulness, gardening and canning, milking and butchering, and all that.
Nobody wants to "go there," nobody wants to think about it. We don't like to think about our own mortality, which leads far too many of us to put off seeing a doctor (What if it's cancer? Going into denial is easier!), putting off writing a will (But then I have to admit that I will one day be dead!), and decluttering our homes so nobody else has to haul away all our stuff when we die. Death is final! Death is too big too contemplate, so we just don't think about it!
Most of us don't. Thank God for the some of us that do.
Beau Griffin, for one.
Yes, he's from the Midwest; no, I've never met him or even heard of him until this year. (Don't worry, Amazon, I'm not violating your Friends and Family policy! I do not know this author!)
#Homesteading and similar communities here at Hive have already covered this topic, in depth, I'm sure, but I haven't gotten around to hunting down links to Prepper Advice.
If you thought the empty shelves of 2021 were bad,
if you think the missing cans and boxes of food are alarming in 2022, start thinking about #STOCKPILING, which is something none of us wants to do.
Where to begin?
Shelving, boxes, jars, cans, storage bins, spreadsheets, root cellars, and more may sound daunting, but you can get Beau Griffin's slim, easy-to-read How-To guide for 99 cents:
Food for a Year: The Leading Prepper’s Guide to Easily Acquiring, Storing, Stockpiling and Preparing Shelf-Stable Foods for Long-Term Survival (Be Well Prepared for Any Disaster or Emergency!) Kindle Edition
No, I'm not gonna summarize all his tips here.
One compelling point he makes is the need to GUARD and PROTECT our food stores from predators.
Coincidentally, I saw this Pipe-Dreaming Idealist's meme surfacing again today at Facebook.
This is a beautiful message but it totally overlooks human history and human nature.
For the same reason we seal walls against mice, rats, cockroaches, and others who'd steal our food stores, we weaponize because of humans who'd pillage. The Pueblo Indians got raided all the time. All that work growing, harvesting, and preserving food, then others come to kill and steal...ah, but this is another topic, for another day. Remind to review The Navajos: The Past and Present of a Great People by John Upton Terrell. (A great people, yes, who raided the Pueblos for food, routinely.)
Enough of my pontificating on why we need to stockpile food AND defend it against hungry poachers and pillagers.
Before I say more about Griffin's book, let me call attention to a longer and more comprehensive book, filled with references to more-more-more books that go into greater depth on how to learn surival skills:
Prepper’s Medical Handbook: Prepper’s Long-Term Survival Guide For Beginners With Step-by-Step Guide to Self-Sufficient Sustainable Living, Food, Water, Off-Grid Shelter, and Survival Strategies by Emma Nora
Take charge of your life and start becoming prepared for what lies around the next corner. By picking up Prepper's Medical Handbook, you will learn how to treat various injuries and illnesses through the use of first aid. Not only that, but you will learn how to fend for yourself if you were to get lost in the wilderness. In Prepper’s Medical Handbook, you will discover:
Learning first aid
Learn to apply first aid techniques
Handling disease and dealing with allergies
Finding water in various environments and treating the water
How to find food and hunt animals
Techniques for setting up traps and snares with visual examples
How to build shelters quick and easy
Using plants to treat common symptoms
And much more...
Stop playing the victim when things go wrong. Become aware of what is happening around you and start to prepare. A well-prepared plan will ensure your and your family’s safety during a time of crisis.
I reviewed an ARC (Advance Reader Copy) for NetGalley:
This is a great starter book for anyone who wants to learn how to survive an apocalypse or even just the next two-week power outage from a hurricane. Packed full of information, the book makes me realize how very many life skills I am lacking. Emma Nora has done the reading, the living, the practicing, and the appendix alone is a gold mine of links to more books that will help us learn how first aid, fire-starting, food preservation, guarding food stores against predators, building shelter, and a gazillion things most of us do not know. Most of us cannot even change a tire if stranded on a lonely road.
I meant to post a long, thoughtful review with a list of topics covered in this book, but suddenly I find it's Christmas Eve, and I will have to come back to this later with more details.
Thank you NetGalley for the ARC of this useful and informative and inspiring book on how to survive as our ancestors did before modern technology rendered us so dependent on others.
Aaaaand, back to Beau Griffin's book, which goes into much more detail about storing and keeping track of food. Here is my Amazon review, even though it'd boost my ratings if you read it at Amazon vs here at Hive:
Preppers know there are many reasons our access to food may be cut off. Job loss, accidents, illness, death, unexpected bills, storms, civil unrest, war, invasions, maybe even a zombie apocalypse. Most of us never face the prospect of our mortality, the sordid business of dying, the fate of any loved ones we leave behind, but writers like Beau Griffin not only face it, they take time to write about the ways we can prepare for those things we Never Wanna Think About.
Stockpiling food: "It's an investment for the future just like your bank account or retirement savings," Griffin writes.
Seasoned readers and health enthusiasts may want to skip whole sections of the book, e.g., the summary of what foods we need to stockpile and why. Proteins, fiber, carbs, fats, and vitamin/supplements. He offers a guide to calculating the actual quantity of food needed for everyone, from adults of various sizes and ages to children.
Do you have money to buy a year's worth of groceries today? Most likely, no. "A New Mindset" on shopping and rotating stock will allow us to build up a long-term pantry. This will also necessitate a spreadsheet to keep inventory of what we have bought, what we have consumed, and when to buy replacement items as we use up those cans, bottles, jars, and buckets before their expiration date.
Growing and preserving our own food gets a few pages here, but readers will need to consult other sources as well. Hunting, trapping, and fishing would take up a whole book.
Protecting your food stores from rodents, insects, and human thieves is another topic.
Building shelves, acquiring bins and buckets, tins and jars, mylar bags, and other storage items is addressed. Note to Tupperware and Rubbermaid fans: plastic starts leaching into food after six months or so. If you use plastic containers, use up the food inside before it becomes toxic.
There's a lot of information in this slender volume, much of it above and beyond what's in another prepper book I just read via NetGalley. That book included first-aid tips, how to build a shelter, how to start a fire without matches, and a long resource of links to other books that go into greater depth on each of the many categories we need to learn more about.
For only 99 cents, this book delivers, but if you want more, you'll pay three dollars for "Survival Medicine & First Aid: The Leading Prepper's Guide to Survive Medical Emergencies in Tough Survival Situations" by Beau Griffin.
Thank you to the author and BookSirens for an ARC of this book.
BookSirens
#Authors: Launch your #book with honest Amazon / Goodreads / BookBub reviews.
#Readers: Receive complimentary ARCs from top publishers / authors.
Worldwidebooksirens.com
Thank you for reading this!
"Keangaroo,"
because Kean sounds like Kane (not keen, hint, hint)
Find me at Twitter:
@tea_in_carolina
novelist, reviewer, editor, book critic
fan of indie authors & underdogs
Follow My Reviews at Goodreads, NetGalley, Amazon Vine
Rants, Raves, Reviews, History, Current Events My Wordpress Blog