Winter driving on rural highways – 10 tips to get you home safely.

Winter driving conditions are here.  Are you prepared?

Its official.  After November 1st winter driving conditions are in effect on all Canadian roads.  There are signs on the highway that warn drivers not to go beyond the city limits without snow tires and chains.  Even with snow tires and chains the driving conditions can be treacherous. Risky weather can blow in when you [...]

Preparing emergency food for your bug-out-bag? Think camping and save money!

Energy Bars for hiking, camping or your bug-out bag.  Save money, ensure the quality of your ingredients and take into account food preferences, by making your own from scratch.

I’ve been advocating that you stock up for winter by gathering food in the time of plenty for a time of scarcity.  I’ve told you not to buy emergency dehydrated food rations in order to prepare for an emergency, but to use food that you have on hand.  Prepared food rations are generally made from [...]

Are you prepared for an emergency? Get that bug-out bag ready now.

This is a test of the Emergency Broadcast System.  Are you ready for when its no longer a "Test:"?  Prepare that bug-out-bag now.

Earthquakes, hurricanes, tsunamis, tornadoes, forest fires, floods, riots — sounds like a news report from 2011.  These things happen without warning and can wreck your plans.  If they happen to you, you need to leave and right now.  You don’t have time to decide what’s important to have with you when you get the evacuation [...]

Food Preparation: Winter Food Storage Basics

Granola made from ingredients in our winter food storage.

Should you prepare for an Emergency?  Is it doomsday already? I recently received an email newsletter from a modern homesteader that pointed out the recent emergencies around North America — the Earth quakes in the East on August 22-25 and Hurricane Irene that was barrelling up the coast over the weekend.  She pointed out that [...]

12 steps to Resilience for challenging times

Food is more valuable than gold in challenging times.

The last three years have seen challenging times.  Food prices have climbed in every country that doesn’t subsidize its agriculture.  There is drought over 2/3rds of all arable land in the world — and arable land makes up only 11% of the world’s land mass.  Poverty is escalating — even in North America.  In some [...]

Food preservation – summer’s bounty for winter’s scarcity

Prepare in summer's bounty for winter's scarcity.

Now is the time to prepare your food for the coming winter.  When it comes to putting-by your garden produce or farmer’s market bounty for winter use there are several approaches.  My rule of thumb is to preserve food in the state that my family is most likely to consume it. Remember the Y2K fiasco?  [...]