Preparedness Archives - Backwoods Home Magazine

Preparing for civil unrest

By Claire Wolfe Issue #118 • July/August, 2009 The most remarkable thing about civil unrest is that there hasn't been more of it. Politicians are making a hash of this country and much of the rest of...

The fire wick fire starter

By Len McDougall Issue #114 • November/December, 2008 When my hunting buddy Dar met me for lunch at our rendezvous point, he said he doubted we could make a small cookfire on the wet, snow-covered ground....

7 Mistakes of food storage

By Vicki Tate Issue #55 • January/February, 1999 If you are going to store food, make sure that the food you store is adequate for the need you and your family anticipate. This may not be...

Start a fire in any weather

By Charles Sanders Issue #161 • September/October, 2016 Most of us living in the backwoods are comfortable with utilizing fire as a tool. We use fire to heat our homes, burn brush, power our forges, help...

Start your food storage on $10 a week

By Alan T. Hagan Issue #59 • September/October, 1999 If Old Mother Hubbard had had a food storage program before she went to her cupboard her poor dog would have gotten his bone. Given the fact...

A survival key ring — Your everyday tool for emergency preparedness

By Jeffrey Yago, P.E., CEM Issue #117 • May/June, 2009 If you saw the movie, "Castaway" starring Tom Hanks, you might remember that his character always carried a small pen knife with him. Early in the...

Avoiding heat illness

By Dr. Gary F. Arnet Drink early and often to avoid dehydration. The body normally needs two to three quarts of water per day, but this can increase to...

Emergency treatment for fire-related injuries

By Joe Alton, M.D. If confronted by a fast-moving wildfire, your chances of avoiding death or injury depend on a plan of action that is easy to understand and quick to implement. Some form of...

Food security 101, part 3: Why I love my vacuum sealer (and more)

By Rowena Aldridge Issue #140 • March/April, 2013 In parts one and two (Issues #138 and #139), we covered basics and homemade convenience foods. Now that you've become so proficient at making delicious, nutritious, and economical...

Preparing for a Temporary Catastrophe

By Dave Duffy Issue #139 • January/February, 2013 November's Superstorm Sandy on the Northeastern coast of the United States was our most recent grand reminder that society is fragile, most people are not ready to take...

Disaster preparation!

By Gary F. Arnet, D.D.S. Issue #74 • March/April, 2002 Are you prepared for a disaster that could affect the daily function of your life or the lives of your family members? Or do you even...

Survival storeroom

By David Eddings Issue #130 • July/August, 2011 This story begins in the mid-nineties when the Y2K threat was in the news. Several members of my family thought it would be prudent if we started stocking...

Food security 101

By Rowena Aldridge Issue #138 • November/December, 2012 These days a lot of people are concerned, and rightly so, about their family's economic stability and security. Recently I've become aware of the ways in which I,...

Gee-Whiz: From Paper to Canning

By John Silveira (aka O.E. MacDougal) May/June 2017 Backwoods Home The greatest inventions in history are the ones we now take for granted. Fire and the wheel-axle combination are among them. If we weren’t taught in...

Bartering for bad times

By John Silveira Issue #138 • November/December, 2012 Bartering may not be a part of your life, right now, but if there's a deepening of the recession, or it becomes a depression, or we enter a...

Building and stocking your pantry

By Jackie Clay Issue #125 • September/October, 2010 At the turn of the 19th century, most country homes had a walk-in pantry, as well as a root cellar for keeping vegetables and fruits. This pantry contained...