When Technology Fails

When Technology Fails: A Manual for Self-Reliance, Sustainability, and Surviving the Long Emergency, 2nd Edition is my favorite book on this subject. It is super thick and stuffed full of anything and everything that you might need to know in a SHTF situation. Almost 500 pages of awesomeness! My hubby loves this book and even bought a second copy for him to keep in his rig. When he is on the road he will be prepared.


FROM THE PRODUCT PAGE:

There’s never been a better time to “be prepared.” Matthew Stein’s comprehensive primer on sustainable living skills—from food and water to shelter and energy to first-aid and crisis-management skills—prepares you to embark on the path toward sustainability. But unlike any other book, Stein not only shows you how to live “green” in seemingly stable times, but to live in the face of potential disasters, lasting days or years, coming in the form of social upheaval, economic meltdown, or environmental catastrophe.
When Technology Fails covers the gamut. You’ll learn how to start a fire and keep warm if you’ve been left temporarily homeless, as well as the basics of installing a renewable energy system for your home or business. You’ll learn how to find and sterilize water in the face of utility failure, as well as practical information for dealing with water-quality issues even when the public tap water is still flowing. You’ll learn alternative techniques for healing equally suited to an era of profit-driven malpractice as to situations of social calamity. Each chapter (a survey of the risks to the status quo; supplies and preparation for short- and long-term emergencies; emergency measures for survival; water; food; shelter; clothing; first aid, low-tech medicine, and healing; energy, heat, and power; metalworking; utensils and storage; low-tech chemistry; and engineering, machines, and materials) offers the same approach, describing skills for self-reliance in good times and bad.
Fully revised and expanded—the first edition was written pre-9/11 and pre-Katrina, when few Americans took the risk of social disruption seriously—When Technology Fails ends on a positive, proactive note with a new chapter on "Making the Shift to Sustainability," which offers practical suggestions for changing our world on personal, community and global levels.

EMP SURVIVAL

I have had this book, EMP Survival: :How to Prepare Now and Survive, When an Electromagnetic Pulse Destroys Our Power Grid, on my survival book shelf for a while now. I pull it out every so often to reread it. It is a great book that is full of some very simple ideas on what to do after an EMP happens.

From the Back Cover

An EMP attack might cost $20 billion and a lot of inconvenience or- it might cause significant mortality.
The power grid failure could be repaired in days or- it could take years.
It could happen today or- next decade.
While Congress hears testimony of our nuclear armed enemies with enhanced EMP weapons- our electric power grid is more vulnerable than ever.
Political leaders and scientists encouraged Americans to prepare for a long term power outage in Congressional testimony. They admit to doing so themselves.
This book describes our personal preparation, survival research and purchasing experience to prepare for an EMP attack.

About the Author

This book is based on our reading of survival preparation texts and congressional testimony of EMP-related hearings, combined with our experience and training.  We have had careers in electrical engineering, holistic nutrition and public health sanitation. The intent is to describe our preparation, research and purchasing experience so that readers can benefit from our effort. The EMP survivalist must have some expertise in areas of communication, medicine, first aid, wild foods, solar energy, and electronics.  We hope that readers will further research and enhance these plans and options for their situation.

What To Do If An EMP Takes Out The Electrical Power Grid

Whether you are a prepper or survivalist, preparing for an economic collapse, or merely a fan of the TV show "Doomsday Preppers" you have probably thought about a major power outage. An EMP attack, where a rogue nation or terrorist entity takes out the electrical power grid, is really one of the 'worst case scenarios' for our country, as we would be plunged into darkness, worse than the 19th century.

The reason it would be worse than the 19th century is because people back then were accustomed to a life without electricity; we are not. Not having electricity in your home is one thing, but if all of society lacked lighting, it would be utter chaos.

The first thing you would want to do is to stay home, as the streets would not be safe for a variety of reasons. If it was merely the power grid that failed, then streetlights and traffic signals would be out. If the EMP fried all electrical circuitry, then your vehicle wouldn't even start.

Either way, the safety of your home would be the best place to be. Hopefully you have had the foresight to put together a family emergency communications plan and anyone who was caught away from home knows exactly what to do.

The first thing you would want to do is immediately fill the bathtub and all available containers with water, since the tap will be dry as soon as the water towers are emptied.

The second thing you'd want to do is to ready your emergency lighting, and prepare blackout curtains for your windows so that all of the neighbors don't see how much light you have. The problem with being prepared is that it attracts the attention, and jealousy, of those who have chosen not to prepare.

Since the neighborhood will be very dark, any homes that have any lighting will be very obvious, and without blackout curtains someone could easily be spying in your window to see if they want to come and help themselves to your supplies.

The third thing to do after the power grid goes down is to make a plan for using up your perishable goods from your refrigerator and freezer. Cooking on a barbecue grill, either yours or a neighbors, may be your only option.

Rehearsing what to do if an EMP takes out the electrical power grid can be a fun way to spend a weekend, if you are committed to shutting off the electricity and really sticking with it. You don't have to be a prepper or a survivalist to appreciate the confidence that comes from having taken steps toward emergency preparedness.

By the way, do you want to discover the 3 steps you can take RIGHT NOW to prepare for a power outage? If so, download my free MP3 HERE.
And to learn what 5 things you should always have in your car, you can go HERE.
Mike Kuykendall, Prepping Consultant

Byron's Prepper Humor and Survival Guide

Byron's Prepper Humor and Survival Guide was a free Kindle book when this post was written.

Do you consider lead a precious metal? Do your favorite numbers include 5.56 or 7.62? Do you chop down trees with your survival knife? Then you might be a prepper.

Byron’s Prepper Humor and Survival Guide takes a strategic and positive approach to prepping. It provides specific short-term and long-term goals for your Personal Prepping Plan. It promotes physical fitness, learning new skills, creating community, and reconnecting with nature. It covers the basics of Kalashnikovs and armored cars too.

Byron’s Prepper Humor and Survival Guide is for people who want to enjoy a couple laughs with their prepping hobby. 

Cooking with Home Canned Foods

Cooking with Home Canned Foods (Frugal Living Academy) was a free kindle book when this post was written.

How To Save Money and Time By Cooking With Pantry Items Canned at Home

Are you on the search for canning recipes? How about recipes to cook with the foods you've canned?

Each of the 30 recipes in this cookbook provides you with an interesting and tasty way to use up those canned goods in your cupboard. Whether you use goods you've canned yourself in the pressure canner, or name brand canned goods purchased at the grocery store, there is something here for everyone. From Soups to Cobbler, all of these recipes are made with easy to find, inexpensive ingredients you can keep on hand and ready for even your busiest weeknight dinner.

Preparing For Disaster: A Basic Survival Guide Book

Preparing For Disaster: A Basic Survival Guide Book was a free book when this post was written for the kindle. DLP Press presents: "Preparing for Disaster: A Basic Survival Guide". This simple family survival guide book explains the dangers of natural disasters and how you should prepared for them.
This book has been carefully written so that the entire family can read and understand emergency dangers and how to survive them as individually and on their own.
  Children will learn and understand how to and when not to depend on their parents in a crisis situation while the parents will learn why and how to make the kids part of the entire survival process.
You Will Learn:
• What to do to prepare your family for disasters
  • What to do if there is a flood
  • What to do if there is a wild fire
• What to do if there is an earthquake
  • What to do if there an incoming tornado
  • What to do if you have to leave your home because of a flood
  • What to do before you returned to you home And that’s that just the beginning.
  Note: This book is suitable for the entire family and survivalist alike. SPECIAL PRICING: This book is exclusive to the Amazon store and currently set at a low promotional price. Read "Preparing for Disaster: A Basic Survival Guide". You, your family and any avid survivalist will benefit from this book.

Food Storage Secrets

Food Storage Secrets: How To Stock and Organize Your Kitchen with Delicious and Nutritious Ingredients was a free book for the kindle or the free kindle reading app when this post was written.

Are you ready to stock your kitchen cupboards with healthy ingredients, and have extra food on hand in case of emergency? It can be tricky to build a healthy food storage with ingredients that you will use, and many people feel overwhelmed by just thinking about the process of putting together a food storage for their family.

This book is designed to give you an overview of options that are available to store healthy ingredients in your home, so that you always have the supplies needed to cook your family healthy meals that they will love. It is a short book, with tips and tricks to help you get started down the path of having a healthy food storage you will love!

Food Dehydration - The Ultimate Recipe Guide

 
 
Food Dehydration - The Ultimate Recipe Guide was a free kindle book when this post was written.

The Ultimate Food Dehydration Guide

Food dehydration delivers the vast majority of foods with the same vitamins and minerals as their fresh counterparts, in a remarkable array of concentrated flavors, nutrients and enzymes. According to health professionals, "The dehydration process retains almost 100% of the nutritional content of the food, retains the alkalinity of fresh produce and actually inhibits the growth of microforms such as bacteria." The shriveled state of dehydrated vegetables may make them seem less appetizing than their fresh or frozen cousins at first glance. However, drying vegetables for later use is one of the oldest and easiest methods of food preservation.  

Survival Tin

This is a small tin that you can carry in your pocket. Has items in it that you could use in any situation, but can't carry a lot. Make your self one out of an empty mint tin.

Things to have in it:

• water purification tablets
• sewing kit
• wire saw
• tealight candle
• safety pins
• Nuclear Anti Radiation Tablets
• fish hooks and line
• matches
• blade

This sill all fit in your tin and then fit in your pocket.

Essential Kit List - Hikers

Making this list up for a family member, but anyone could use it and should! This is for them when they go hiking. Which, they do a lot.

• Tent
• sleeping bag
• mosquito net
• hammock
• towel
• flashlight
• digging spade
• multi-tool with knife
• first aid kit
• aluminum water bottle
• way to cook - mess kit
• way to wash
• compass
• map case to keep your map dry
• walking stick
• rope
• climbing harness
• a survival tin
• It is pretty much a given that you will also want some food items and energy bars.

You will need extra clothing etc. Pack them up in plastic bags so they will stay dry.