Domestic rabbits have something of a reputation as being standoffish and aloof. Compared to dogs and even cats, both of which tend to wear their hearts on their sleeve by comparison, most folks find rabbits inscrutable. Nonetheless, many owners report that they share a close bond with their furry, long-eared companions and that they show ... Read more
14 Ways to Know that Your Rabbits Like You can be read in full at New Life On A Homestead- Be sure to check it out!
If We Have a War: What Are People Waiting For? Millions of families have no emergency food, no stored water, and no way to cook without power. Here are the excuses they keep making; and why not one of them holds up under scrutiny.
The headlines keep coming. Geopolitical tensions. Power grid vulnerabilities. Supply chain disruptions. Experts across government agencies and the military have been sounding the alarm for years: the question is no longer whether Americans should prepare for emergencies, but whether they will. And still, the vast majority of households in this country have fewer than three days of food on hand, no meaningful water reserve, and no plan for how to cook a meal if the gas lines go down or the electricity disappears. The excuses are familiar. They’re also, every one of them, wrong.
The time to prepare is before the disaster, not during it. Every week you delay is a week your family continues to live with the high risk of being unprepared.
This is the granddaddy of all preparedness excuses and the most dangerous one. History isn’ kind to people who assume geographic immunity. Earthquakes, tornadoes, flooding, wildfires, ice storms, and extended power outages don’t check the address before they arrive. War, whether a direct attack on infrastructure or a cyberattack on the electrical grid, doesn’t spare suburban neighborhoods or rural communities. FEMA consistently reports that the areas hit hardest by disasters are often the ones least prepared for them. The idea that your town, your state, or your country is somehow exempt from catastrophic disruption isn’t confidence. It’s complacency dressed up as confidence.
Emergency food storage, water reserves, and off-grid cooking devices aren’t just for people in high-risk zones. They’re for anyone who eats, drinks, and needs to cook food to survive, which is everyone.
This excuse has a kernel of truth, which makes it particularly sticky. Yes, buying a year’s worth of freeze-dried food at once is expensive. But that isn’t what building emergency food storage actually requires. A 72-hour emergency kit can be assembled for under fifty dollars. Adding a few extra cans of beans, rice, oats, and shelf-stable protein each week at the grocery store costs almost nothing if done incrementally. Over the course of three months, a family of four can build a meaningful reserve without ever feeling a significant financial pinch.
Water storage is even less expensive. Food-grade containers cost a few dollars each. A water filter, such as a Sawyer Squeeze or a basic gravity filter, costs $50 to $60 and can filter thousands of gallons of water, given sufficient time. A single propane camp stove and a few extra fuel canisters from a hardware store are a thirty-dollar emergency cooking solution that’ll last for years. The idea that preparedness is a luxury is simply not supported by the actual cost of basic supplies. What is expensive is being completely unprepared when shelves go bare and delivery trucks stop running. Life Straw Filter Bottle or The Sawyer Squeeze Bag
Single Butane/Propane Stove and Butane Fuel as well as Propane Fuel
FEMA itself has repeatedly and publicly stated that citizens shouldn’t rely on government agencies as their primary source of emergency aid. After Hurricane Katrina, after Superstorm Sandy, after the Texas freeze of 2021, the pattern has been the same: government response is slow, uneven, and overwhelmed. When a widespread disaster or wartime disruption affects an entire region or the entire country simultaneously, government resources are stretched far beyond their capacity to help individual households in the first days and weeks.
Emergency food storage, water, and cooking capability at the household level isn’t paranoia. It’s the specific behavior that FEMA, the CDC, the American Red Cross, and local emergency management agencies actively recommend. They want you to take care of yourself for at least two weeks, and ideally longer, so that government and relief resources can focus on those who can’t help themselves. Depending entirely on institutional rescue isn’t just naive. It puts your family at the back of an extremely long line.
People living in apartments, condos, or small homes often use the lack of space as a reason to skip preparedness entirely. But a two-week supply of food for two people can fit in two or three medium-sized plastic bins stored under a bed, in a closet, or on a shelf in a utility room. Water can be stored in collapsible containers that take up almost no space when empty. Emergency cooking devices, like a compact butane stove, fold flat and fit in a drawer. Collapsible Water Containers
The space argument usually holds up only if someone has never actually priced out how small a meaningful emergency supply can be. A 25-pound bag of white rice, a 25-pound bag of rolled oats, two cases of canned goods, a few jars of peanut butter, and some basic protein sources take up roughly the same amount of space as a medium-sized suitcase. That isn’t a fully expanded preparedness plan, but it’s a foundation that fits almost any living situation. The real issue isn’t space. It’s a priority that needs to be dealt with. I use 5 gallon buckets with Gamma Lids.
This is perhaps the most understandable excuse and the easiest to solve. The barrier of not knowing where to begin stops many well-meaning people from taking any action at all. The answer is simpler than most people expect. Start with water. Store one gallon per person per day, for at least two weeks. A family of four needs at least 56 gallons. That’s roughly nine standard water containers from a grocery store or outdoor supply retailer. That’s what the American Red Cross suggests. You know by now, I want four gallons per person per day. I get thirsty thinking I can only have one gallon a day. That’s why I store a lot of water for Mark and me.
Next, build a two-week supply of food using items your family already eats that have a longer shelf life. Canned beans, canned vegetables, canned fruit, rice, pasta, oats, nut butters, shelf-stable milk, and honey are practical starting points. Then add a way to cook without your home’s standard utility hookups. A propane camp stove, a butane stove, a rocket stove that burns wood or fuel pellets, or a solar cooker all serve this purpose at different price points. That’s the foundation of emergency food and cooking preparedness, and none of it requires special knowledge, a large budget, or significant storage space.
This excuse misunderstands how emergency food storage actually works. The goal isn’t to buy a stockpile and never touch it. The goal is to rotate through your supply using the first-in, first-out method. You buy extra food, you eat from it regularly, and you replace what you use. Done correctly, nothing expires. Your emergency supply becomes a living pantry that you maintain as you would any other grocery stock.
For those who prefer longer-term storage, freeze-dried foods and properly sealed staples like white rice, hard red or white wheat, and dried beans can be stored for twenty-five to thirty years under the right conditions. The expiration excuse applies only if someone is planning to buy food and then completely forgets it exists, which isn’t how preparedness is supposed to work. Learn the rotation principle, practice it, and the expiration problem disappears entirely.
The fantasy of simply leaving when things get dangerous is compelling and almost entirely impractical. Where exactly would you go? How would you get there when roads are gridlocked, fuel is unavailable, and everyone else has the same idea at the same time? What would you eat when you arrived? Emergency management professionals consistently point out that evacuation without a pre-planned destination and a stocked vehicle is one of the most dangerous choices a family can make during a crisis.
More importantly, most emergencies and disasters don’t require evacuation. They require sheltering in place for days, weeks, or longer. Home-based food storage, water reserves, and emergency cooking devices are what keep a sheltering family stable, fed, and functional while the situation resolves. Planning to leave isn’t a substitute for preparing to stay. It’s also not a substitute for preparing to leave, since a good bug-out bag still contains food, water, and a portable cooking method.
This is the most honest of all the excuses and possibly the most widespread. Preparedness isn’t urgent on any given calm Tuesday afternoon. There are errands, work obligations, children, social commitments, and a hundred other things that feel more pressing. Emergency preparedness falls into the category of important but not yet urgent, and that’s exactly where it tends to stay until the moment it becomes both important and critical.
The nature of disaster is that it eliminates the luxury of preparation time. A cyberattack on a power grid, a missile strike on a regional logistics hub, a rapid escalation of a military conflict, or simply a severe winter storm doesn’t provide a two-week preparation window. The supply chain disruptions of 2020 gave many Americans a preview of how quickly shelves empty and how long they stay empty. That preview was mild by historical standards and by the standards of what a genuine wartime or catastrophic infrastructure event would bring. Doing it later isn’t a plan. It’s a hope, and hopes don’t feed families.
For some people, the idea of food storage carries a cultural association with bunkers, conspiracy theories, and extreme prepper culture that feels uncomfortable or embarrassing. This perception, while understandable, tries to combine two very different things. Recommending that a family keep a month of food and water on hand isn’t significantly different from what grandparents and great-grandparents across every culture on earth considered basic household management. Pantry stocking, root cellars, preserved meats, and stored grains were normal features of family life for most of human history. Industrial supply chains and just-in-time retail made that tradition seem unnecessary. Recent events have demonstrated exactly how fragile those supply chains actually are.
Keeping emergency food, water, and cooking capacity at home isn’t extremism. It’s prudent. It’s what insurance looks like for your family’s most basic needs. You wouldn’t go without health insurance because having it feels overly cautious. The same logic applies here.
Community and mutual aid are genuinely important parts of disaster resilience. Neighbors do help neighbors. Families do pull together in crises. These things are real and valuable. But they aren’t a substitute for individual household preparedness, for a straightforward reason: in a widespread emergency, your neighbors and family are facing exactly the same pressures you are. If none of you have stored food, water, or emergency cooking capability, the generosity of the community doesn’t create resources that don’t exist.
The most resilient communities in emergencies are those in which individual households are already self-sufficient for at least 2 weeks before a crisis. When everyone has their own supply, community mutual aid becomes about sharing surplus and helping those with genuine needs, not about a scramble for scarce basics that leaves everyone worse off. Being prepared yourself is, in fact, one of the most community-minded things you can do.
75 Reasons Why You Should Store Water Now
How To Build A Food Storage Supply You’ll Use
“Preparedness isn’t about fear. It’s about the quiet confidence that comes from knowing your family won’t be desperate in the first week of a crisis.” There’s no good excuse. There are understandable, relatable, and honest ones. But none of them hold up when weighed against the actual cost of being unprepared in a serious emergency. Emergency food storage doesn’t require wealth. Water storage doesn’t require space you don’t have. Emergency cooking devices don’t require expertise you haven’t developed yet. What all three require is a decision, a trip to the store, and a small, consistent habit of adding to what you do have. The question isn’t whether you can afford to prepare. The question is whether you can afford not to. The decision is yours to make. May God bless this world, Linda
The post If We Have A War: What Are People Waiting For? appeared first on Food Storage Moms.
Estimated reading time: 8 minutes
For the first time since World War II, many Americans are worried about food security and are looking to level up their self-sufficiency game. In and of itself, this is a very good thing, but it's also a little problematic.
In this new victory garden movement, vegetable seedlings are being grabbed off the shelves as quickly as they arrive, without any planning or preparation. Many families are going to find out the hard way that food doesn’t just grow itself. Aside from work, self-sufficiency also takes a lot of strategizing.
Most of us vastly overestimate our ability to grow enough food to feed our families. While a dozen tomato and pepper plants may yield a huge harvest, can you live off of it? Definitely not.
This isn’t about eating picturesque heirloom vegetables on the porch, it’s about producing enough calories to make a dent in your nutritional needs. So let’s talk about calorie cropping – growing with the goal of providing calorie-rich food, preferably food you can store for several seasons.
There are two ways of looking at the calorie potential of a crop: how many calories a harvest contains per pound, and how many calories you can produce per 100 square feet.
Consider this: In 100 square feet, you can grow 70 to 100 pounds of cabbage or you can grow seven pounds of peanuts. While the cabbage is about ten times more mass, it provides less than half the calories (a maximum of 18,000 calories for the peanuts versus 11,000 for the cabbage).
The same amount of space will yield up to 90 pounds of potatoes and a whopping 32,000 calories!
As you can see, if you're trying to feed your family, then you need to focus on the highest-calorie crops that require the least amount of space. Below is my list of suggestions:
When it comes to the most calories in the least amount of space, potatoes are the big winner. Not only are they easy to grow, but they store well and can last a while in a root cellar.
Sweet potatoes are fantastic because they love hot weather and their greens are edible, nutritious, and plentiful in the hottest stretches of summer.
Corn will give you a lot of bang for your buck – around 30,000 calories per 100 square feet! Buy non-GMO seed if you want to save seeds to plant the following year.
While this isn’t tasty sweet corn that you can eat off the cob, you can grind it into flour, which stores practically forever and can be used in many interesting ways.
Wheat is a surprisingly easy crop to grow, harvest, and use. You can produce around six pounds of wheat per 100 square feet – which means in 800 square feet you could grow enough to make a weekly loaf of bread for an entire year.
Better yet, you can plant it in the fall and let it grow over winter (instead of leaving your beds empty), then harvest in the early summer. If you have livestock, they can eat the straw left after harvest, and you can plant your next crop right into the stubble without plowing or tilling.
Beans are a must-have in the calorie-intensive garden. Do your research to find the varieties that perform best in your region, and you can expect between three and six pounds of beans per 100 square feet.
They mature more quickly than many other crops (in 7 to 10 weeks) and pack more than 1,500 calories per pound. Stored properly, they can last decades.
If your climate is warm enough, this groundnut is a solid bet for a couple of key reasons. Peanuts are rich in protein and can be pressed to make oil for cooking.
They are also quite high in calories and require little maintenance or care for the 17 weeks it takes them to mature.
Pumpkins, butternut, acorn squash – these rich and delicious autumn harvests store well, produce a ton of mass per 100 square feet (50 to over 100 pounds) and store well over winter.
While not the most calorie-dense kids on the block, these guys have some exceptional qualities. Cabbage can overwinter in a root cellar, and can also be made into sauerkraut, which lasts for months and is full of probiotics.
Kale and collards give you calcium-rich greens through the winter months when fresh vegetables are in short supply.
Okay, so let’s say you want to provide a lot of calories in a hurry. The bad news is that none of these crops are going to grow overnight. You are going to have to wait at least eight weeks.
Crops like kohlrabi, spinach, and radishes can provide a reasonably high number of calories in three to six weeks. Wheat is a slow crop that won’t provide you with anything until the following year, and corn is not much faster.
Root vegetables such as beets, carrots, and turnips offer a faster turnaround than the other crops listed, with a pretty good payoff in calories. If you have enough space, then by all means, grow a variety of faster-maturing crops to keep things interesting while you wait for your calorie-crops to mature.
By far, the most comprehensive strategy I’ve come across for growing calories is the biointensive method. This growing method has been field-tested for decades and is used around the world to produce high yields using less water and space than conventional methods.
The biointensive rule of thumb is that it takes 2,000 square feet to produce a single person’s annual caloric needs, so take that into consideration when planning your garden.
As far as producing a big chunk of the calories you need in your own garden, one thing that really increases capacity is food storage. Drying beans and grains is one thing, but that’s just the beginning. Greens can be dehydrated, vegetables can be canned, frozen, or pickled, and a good root cellar can keep produce for many months.
When you build up a supply, each year becomes progressively easier because you’ve got expanded capacity already built up.
I’ve provided a lot of examples of calorie crops to give you an idea of what is possible. For my own garden, if I were to focus on calories alone, I would primarily grow wheat, potatoes (sweet and regular), beans, and winter squash.
Wheat is easy to grow, so you can plant it and more or less forget about it. Potatoes are prolific and effortless to produce (if I could only grow one, this would be my top pick).
Beans give you plenty of fresh, green pods for instant gratification, and are a winter favorite around our house. And winter squash is versatile, delicious, and stores well.
Don’t let any of this discourage you. Even if you don’t have the space or gardening know-how to grow 100% of your own food, at the very least you can supplement your diet with produce from your own garden.
Originally published on Urban Survival Site.
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If We Have A War: Don’t Be In The Dark. Many people never think about what happens when the lights go out, and there’s nowhere to plug in. A war doesn’t announce itself politely. Infrastructure is one of the first things to go, and with it the power that runs every corner of modern life. Darkness falls fast, and darkness has a way of making every other problem worse. The families who come through hard times are almost always the ones who planned ahead, and planning ahead for light is one of the simplest, most overlooked acts of true readiness.
When conflict reaches the point of disrupting the electrical grid, day becomes manageable and night becomes a different world entirely. You can’t cook safely in the dark. You won’t be able to properly tend to an injury you can’t see. It’s impossible to read instructions on a medication bottle, comfort a frightened child, or navigate your own home without stumbling into something. Light is not a luxury in a crisis. It’s a fundamental requirement for safety, sanity, and survival.
This post is about building a lighting plan before you need one. It covers the tools that will serve you best across days, weeks, or longer stretches without power: battery flashlights, solar flashlights, solar lanterns, solar yard lights, and the batteries to keep them all running. Each has a specific role. Used together, they form a complete system that leaves no corner of your preparedness in the dark.
The families who survive hardship longest are almost always the ones who secured their lighting options first. Everything else follows from being able to see.
Power outages during war are not the same as a storm-related blackout that lasts a few hours. Wartime grid disruption can last for weeks or months, and in some historical conflicts it’s stretched into years. The electrical infrastructure of a region, once targeted, doesn’t come back quickly. Repairs require supply chains, skilled workers, and security that may not exist in a conflict zone.
When the sun sets in a world without electricity, the psychological weight is immediate. Studies of populations living through prolonged blackouts consistently show increased rates of accidents and injuries, slower responses to medical emergencies, and a measurable deterioration in morale. The practical effects compound the emotional ones. Food spoils faster when you can’t see what you’re working with. Strangers become harder to identify. Threats that would be obvious in daylight become invisible in the dark.
None of this needs to be your reality. A modest investment in the right lighting tools, assembled now while stores are stocked and shipping is reliable, changes the equation entirely. The cost of being prepared is relatively small. The cost of being unprepared is enormous.
Battery flashlights are the foundation of any emergency lighting plan, and they should be the first thing you secure. They’re immediate, portable, and require no setup. The moment the lights go out, a battery flashlight is what you reach for. For emergency preparedness, you want at least one quality flashlight in every room, one in every vehicle, and one dedicated to every person in your household who is old enough to use one responsibly.
When selecting battery flashlights for war preparedness or extended grid-down scenarios, lumens matter, but so does runtime. A flashlight that burns at 1000 lumens for 30 minutes is far less useful than one that runs at 300 lumens for 10 hours on the same batteries. Look for models with multiple brightness settings to conserve power when full brightness isn’t needed. A low setting used for reading or moving through familiar spaces can dramatically extend battery life compared to running the flashlight at maximum output.
Water resistance is essential. Rain doesn’t stop because of a crisis, and the conditions under which you might need your flashlight most are often the ones least friendly to electronics. Look for flashlights rated IPX4 or higher for splash and rain resistance, or IPX7 or IPX8 if you anticipate submersion risks. Military-grade and tactical flashlights often meet these standards and are built to withstand the demands of emergency scenarios.
Consider having at least one high-quality headlamp for each adult in your household. A headlamp leaves both hands free, which matters enormously when you’re cooking, performing first aid, working on repairs, or carrying supplies. The best emergency headlamps run on AA or AAA batteries and offer a red light mode that preserves night vision and is less visible from a distance, both of which are practical advantages in any scenario where security is a concern. Headlamps or Battery Headlamps
Solar flashlights represent one of the most important advances in emergency lighting technology of the past decade. Whereas a conventional battery flashlight eventually drains its power and goes dark, a solar flashlight recharges each day using sunlight and is ready again by nightfall. In a prolonged emergency where replacement batteries may not be available, this renewable quality changes everything.
The best solar flashlights for emergency preparedness include a built-in photovoltaic panel that allows them to charge while hanging in a window, resting on a sill, or sitting outside in partial shade. Many models also accept USB charging, giving you flexibility if you have access to a power bank or a vehicle charging port. In a scenario where grid power is unavailable but you still have a functioning vehicle, this dual-charging capability considerably extends your options.
Solar flashlights do have one limitation that you must plan around: they need sunlight to charge, and cloudy days extend the recharge cycle. This is exactly why solar flashlights should complement your battery flashlight supply rather than replace it. Use your solar units as your primary light sources whenever possible, conserving your battery flashlights for situations where immediate, full-power light is needed without waiting for a solar charge.
When evaluating solar flashlights, look for units with internal lithium-ion batteries, as they retain their charge longer and withstand more charge cycles than older battery technologies. A good solar flashlight can provide reliable light for years of daily use with no operating costs. For preparedness, keep several charged and ready, rotating them into sunlight regularly so they’re always at full capacity. Solar Flashlights and Battery Flashlights. We have numerous solar flashlights resting on window sills all the time, and that fact provides confidence and comfort.
A flashlight illuminates where you point it. A lantern lights a room. This distinction becomes critical when you’re living in a grid-down environment for an extended period. Solar lanterns are the indoor workhorses of emergency lighting, providing ambient illumination for cooking, eating, caring for children, treating injuries, and maintaining the semblance of normal life that is so important to morale during extended crises.
Solar lanterns designed for emergency use typically fold flat for storage and expand to expose a solar panel for charging. Many models include a hook or handle for hanging, which allows you to position them for maximum coverage in a room. The best units run 8 to 12 hours on a single charge and are bright enough to comfortably illuminate a small room or table workspace without harsh glare. Lanterns with Batteries and Solar Lanterns
For a household of four people, plan on having a minimum of four to six solar lanterns. You want at least one per room in active use, with additional units charging at any given time. Rotating lanterns between charging and use ensures that you always have light available, regardless of how much sun the day provides. In households with young children or older family members, keeping a lantern on through the night at low brightness provides safety and comfort that is worth the modest power cost.
Collapsible solar lanterns are particularly valuable for preparedness kits because they pack small and weigh almost nothing. A family with a well-stocked emergency kit might include two or three collapsed solar lanterns that take up no more space than a book. When deployed, they can transform from a compact package into a reliable light source within seconds, requiring no tools, no fuel, and no special knowledge to operate. Emergency Power Outage Lights
When we talk about war preparedness and lighting, most people think only of the inside of their home. But the exterior of your property matters just as much, and in some scenarios, it matters more. Solar yard lights are a simple, low-cost solution that keeps your immediate surroundings illuminated through the night without drawing on any stored battery supply.
Solar yard lights stake into the ground along paths, driveways, and entry points. They charge during the day using their individual solar panels and switch on automatically at dusk. They require no wiring, no maintenance, and no operating costs. In a normal residential setting, they are a convenience and an aesthetic choice. In a grid-down emergency, they become security infrastructure.
A yard that remains lit at night is less attractive to those who prefer to operate in darkness, whether that means opportunistic theft, trespassing, or more serious threats. Motion-activated solar yard lights add an extra layer by flooding specific areas with a sudden burst of bright light when movement is detected. This serves as both a deterrent and an alert, giving the household a moment of warning before an approaching person reaches the door.
For preparedness purposes, install solar yard lights along every approach to your home and around any areas where you store supplies or equipment. Focus especially on gates, garage doors, and secondary entry points that might not be immediately visible from inside. Even modest solar yard lights that produce 10 to 20 lumens each provide meaningful visibility improvements over total darkness, and the cumulative effect of six or eight of them, positioned strategically, can make a property feel and function like a well-lit environment even without grid power. Yard Solar Lights
Consider also keeping a small supply of replacement solar yard lights in storage. These units are inexpensive in bulk, and having extras means you can quickly replace any that are damaged, stolen, or stop functioning during an extended emergency. The resilience of a yard lighting system depends on its reliability, and redundancy is the simplest way to ensure that reliability when supply chains are disrupted.
In a world where the grid is down and solar panels are charging during daylight hours, batteries become one of the most valuable commodities in your possession. They’re the stored energy that powers your flashlights through long winter nights, runs the devices your household depends on, and gives you flexibility when solar charging is not sufficient. Treating your battery supply with the same seriousness as your food and water supply is one of the wisest things a preparedness-minded household can do.
Start with a standardized battery strategy. The more variety of battery sizes your devices require, the more complicated your supply management becomes. Where possible, select flashlights, lanterns, radios, and other emergency devices that all run on AA batteries. AA batteries are the most widely available battery size worldwide, making them the easiest to find if you need to resupply or buy in bulk. A household that has consolidated its batteries around AA and AAA has a far simpler storage and rotation challenge than one that maintains inventory in six different sizes. Alkaline batteries are fine for regular rotation and use. I buy mine from Sam’s Club and have them shipped to me. I paid for the Plus membership, worth every penny.
Rechargeable batteries are an essential complement to your disposable supply. A set of high-quality rechargeable AA and AAA batteries paired with a solar battery charger creates a self-sustaining power loop that keeps your battery-powered devices running indefinitely as long as sunlight is available. The initial investment is higher than that of buying disposables, but the long-term value during an extended emergency is extraordinary. Look for rechargeable batteries with low self-discharge ratings, as these hold their charge for months between uses rather than draining themselves within weeks.
Store your battery supply properly. Batteries should be kept at cool, stable temperatures away from metal objects and out of humid environments. A dedicated waterproof storage container in a cool interior closet is ideal. Avoid storing loose batteries in a junk drawer where they can come into contact with metal objects and slowly discharge or short-circuit. Label your supply with purchase dates and rotate through older stock first, moving freshest batteries to the back of the storage container as you add them.
Batteries are the currency of the dark. Store them the way you store money in uncertain times: carefully, abundantly, and with a long horizon in mind.
The real power of emergency lighting preparedness comes not from any single item but from the way the pieces work together as a system. Battery flashlights give you instant, portable, powerful light on demand. Solar flashlights extend that capability indefinitely using free energy from the sun. Solar-powered lanterns transform dark rooms into functional living spaces. Solar yard lights secure your exterior perimeter without depleting any stored energy. Batteries serve as the bridge between these technologies, keeping everything running through the nights when solar charging alone is not enough.
A practical starting point for a household of four people might look like this: eight high-quality battery flashlights distributed throughout the home and vehicles, with four headlamps included in that count. Four solar flashlights kept charged and rotating through the window charging positions. Six solar lanterns are stored, collapsed, and ready for immediate deployment. 12 solar yard lights were installed around the exterior of the property. Two sets of 16 rechargeable AA batteries and a solar battery charger capable of refreshing all of them within a day of sunlight. Solar Lights For Outside
This may sound like a lot. It’s less than many families spend on entertainment in a single month, and it’s an investment that doesn’t expire. The flashlights and lanterns will serve you for years. The yard lights will keep running season after season. The batteries in cool storage will be just as ready in 15 years as they are today. Unlike food storage, which requires ongoing rotation and vigilance, a lighting system built once largely takes care of itself.
Lithium batteries are different. I bought some, and they weren’t interchangeable in all units that require batteries. I heard they last longer, but if they don’t work in my smoke alarm, they’re useless to me. Let me know if you have had good luck with lithium batteries.
There is a particular kind of helplessness that comes from sitting in the dark, knowing you had every opportunity to prepare and chose not to. Nobody who has lived through a prolonged power outage, a wartime infrastructure attack, or an extended natural disaster wishes they had fewer flashlights or less fuel for their lanterns. The regret always runs the other direction.
The time to build your emergency lighting supply is now, while stores are stocked, while shipping is reliable, while the decision is entirely calm and unhurried. When the situation changes, and history gives us every reason to believe it can change quickly and without warning, the families who acted in advance will step into the darkness with confidence. Those who waited will wish they hadn’t.
Start with a quality flashlight. Then add a solar lantern. Then work through the list at whatever pace fits your budget and timeline. Any step forward is better than standing still. The night is patient. It will come regardless of whether you’re ready. The question is simply whether you intend to be ready when it does.
You don’t have to be a survivalist or a soldier to understand what’s at stake when the lights go out. You just have to be someone who loves their family and is ready. The tools covered in this post are simple, affordable, and available right now. Battery flashlights, solar flashlights, solar lanterns, solar yard lights, and a solid battery supply aren’t extreme measures. They’re common sense in uncommon times. Buy them before you need them, store them where you can find them in the dark, and rest a little easier knowing that whatever comes, the night won’t catch you unprepared. May God bless this world, Linda
The post If We Have A War: Don’t Be In The Dark appeared first on Food Storage Moms.
Hollywood gets a lot wrong about survival. The hero always finds food in the first place he looks, the fire starts on the first try, and the wound that would kill a real person in three days is forgotten by the next scene. But that does not mean survival movies are worthless to a prepper. […]
The post 20 Best Survival Movies You Should Watch (And What to Learn From Each) appeared first on Ask a Prepper.