Most preparedness advice about power outages stops at “buy a generator.” A generator is useful, but it only works as long as you have fuel for it, and most people have never worked out how much fuel that actually is. I’d sold my generator a while before the February storm that knocked out our power…
I’ve been making kombucha for about ten years now, and I don’t have a recipe. Not really. A friend brought me a SCOBY and a written recipe when I first started. I followed it for a while. But once I had the pot and the ingredients, I just started making it, and at some point…
It always amazes me how resilient a garden can be, if you’re willing to go out and actually look. The garden had been through weeks of snow and freezing weather. What was left of last year’s fall-planted crops, broccoli, cabbage, and Brussels sprouts, looked pretty rough by that point. I honestly didn’t expect to find…
The problem with preparing for emergencies is that you almost never see them coming. They just show up. One minute everything’s normal, the next you’re wearing a mask and can’t find toilet paper of all things, which is exactly what happened during COVID. If you’ve wondered whether it’s worth stocking up before an emergency, the…
Most preparedness advice starts with a list of gear, water filters, freeze-dried buckets, generators. All of that has its place. But there’s a form of preparedness that doesn’t cost much and doesn’t need a storage closet: knowing how to grow and produce a little of your own food. Three Days Is All the Grocery Store…
I kept bees for about fifteen years, and it’s one of the things I miss most from everything I’ve raised. There’s something almost meditative about standing near a hive and watching bees work their way in and out, once you spend real time around them, it’s hard not to see them as one of nature’s…