Being Aware Of Your Surroundings

Being aware of your surroundings is an important topic to talk about. Most people move through their day on autopilot. They scroll their phones in parking lots, pop in earbuds on quiet streets, and sit with their backs to open doorways without a second thought. This is completely natural, but it’s also a habit that leaves us less prepared for unexpected events. Learning how to be aware of your surroundings isn’t about living in fear. It’s about building a calm, confident skill that protects you and the people you love.

Please note, whenever I eat in a restaurant, which is rare, I sit where I can see the doors with people coming and going. I also measure how tall they are in my head. I think that’s from my banking days, in case of a robbery. When I used to go to the movie theaters, I looked for the EXIT signs; it’s how I roll. I do the same thing whenever I go into a grocery store; I must know where the exit doors are. Whenever I enter a building, even a church, I must know where the exit doors are. It’s just me; I have always been this way.

Being Aware Of Your Surroundings

1. Understand what situational awareness actually means

Situational awareness is simply the ongoing practice of noticing what’s happening around you and understanding what those observations mean. The term comes from aviation and military training, but it applies just as powerfully to everyday family life. When you walk into a restaurant and quietly scan for exits, when you check on a child who’s gone quiet in the next room, when you trust a feeling that something seems off, you’re already using situational awareness. The goal is to do it more consistently and with greater skill.

Key term: Situational awareness means knowing where you are, who is around you, and what is likely to happen next, so you can respond wisely rather than react in panic.

2. Put your phone away and look up

This is the single most impactful change most families can make. Smartphones are extraordinary tools, but they create a tunnel of attention that blocks everything else out. Research on pedestrian safety consistently finds that people who are looking at their phones are slower to detect hazards, less likely to check for traffic, and far more likely to walk into dangerous situations without noticing. The fix isn’t complicated. Before you enter a new space, pocket the phone. Give yourself thirty seconds to look around and get oriented before you re-engage with a screen. Teach your children to do the same.

3. Know your exits wherever you go

Whenever you enter a building, a theater, a restaurant, or any public space, spend a moment identifying the exits. This isn’t a scary exercise. It’s the same principle that makes you buckle your seat belt on a short drive or keep a first-aid kit in the kitchen. In an emergency, people who already know where the exits are move through them quickly and calmly. People who don’t know often freeze, follow crowds, or waste precious seconds searching. Make this a gentle family habit. When you sit down at a restaurant, ask your children to find two ways out. It turns a safety skill into a quiet game.

For parents: Turn exit-finding into a low-key family ritual. Children who learn this habit young carry it for life and are less likely to panic in an emergency.

4. Learn to use your peripheral vision

Your eyes are designed to do two things at once. Your central vision handles focus and detail. Your peripheral vision, the wide band at the edges of your field of sight, is extremely good at detecting movement, unusual shapes, and anything out of place. Most people only use central vision because peripheral awareness takes practice. You can strengthen it simply by resisting the urge to fixate. When you walk down a street, let your gaze soften and rest at a natural middle distance rather than locking onto your phone, the ground, or a single point ahead. Your peripheral vision will begin feeding you much more information about what’s happening on either side of you.

5. Position yourself wisely in public spaces

Where you sit and stand changes how much you can see and how quickly you can respond. In restaurants and waiting rooms, choosing a seat with your back to a wall and a clear line of sight to the entrance means you’ll notice anything unusual early, while you still have time to think. In crowded spaces, staying slightly away from the densest part of the crowd gives you room to move. These choices cost nothing and require no special training. They’re simply the habit of placing yourself where you can see more and have more options to react.

6. Trust your instincts and teach children to trust theirs

Human beings carry millions of years of threat-detection capability. When something feels wrong before you can explain why, that feeling is often your brain processing dozens of small signals faster than your conscious mind can catch up. Safety educators and child psychologists consistently emphasize one message for families: feelings count. If a child says a person makes them feel strange or uncomfortable, take it seriously and leave without embarrassment or explanation. Teach children that their body is allowed to have that reaction, that they never owe anyone their trust, and that a parent or trusted adult will always believe them when they say something feels wrong.

Script for children: “If something ever feels weird or scary, you’re allowed to say no, you’re allowed to walk away, and you can always come to me. I’ll never be upset with you for trusting your feelings.”

Please make sure that if your child visits a friend’s home, they know it’s okay to call you to come and pick them up if they don’t feel safe or if something feels off. Children have instincts as well.

7. Practice the “baseline” habit

Every environment has a normal rhythm. A library is quiet. A playground is noisy. A street market is busy and fragrant. Learning to notice what is normal in a space makes it much easier to notice when something shifts. Safety trainers call this reading the baseline. When you enter any space, take a few seconds to register what it looks and sounds like. If the baseline changes suddenly, whether it goes unusually quiet, a crowd shifts direction, or people begin looking toward one spot, that change is worth your attention. You don’t need to panic. You simply need to notice, assess, and decide whether to stay, move, or ask for help.

8. Stay aware of your daily commute and walks

Familiar routes are where awareness most easily slips. Because you’ve walked or driven the same path a hundred times, your brain treats it as safe and stops paying close attention. This is precisely when small changes in the environment are easiest to miss. Try approaching familiar routes with fresh eyes at least occasionally. Notice whether parked cars have changed, whether someone appears to be following the same route at the same pace as you, or whether your usual path is unusually empty. You don’t need to be suspicious of everything. You simply want to stay engaged rather than absent.

9. Bring children into the habit gently and positively

Children who are raised with situational awareness don’t become anxious adults. They become confident ones. The key is framing. Awareness isn’t about danger lurking everywhere. It’s a superpower. When you walk through a parking lot with your child, you might say, “Let’s see how many exits we can count before we get inside,” or “What do you notice that’s different from last time we came here?” These conversations build the neural habit of observation without creating fear. Over time, children who practice noticing their surroundings grow into teenagers and adults who move through the world with quiet confidence and an ability to sense and respond to their environment long before problems escalate.

10. Know when and how to ask for help

Situational awareness isn’t about handling everything alone. It includes knowing when a situation calls for support, and having the confidence to ask for it without hesitation. Teach every child in your family what a police officer, security guard, and store employee look like, and that these are people they can approach without fear. Practice what to say: your name, where you last were with your family, and a description of a parent or guardian. Adults benefit from this habit too. There’s no shame in asking a stranger to walk with you to your car if a parking garage feels unsafe, or in calling someone to stay on the line for conversation during a walk that feels off. Safety is a team effort.

A simple family plan: Agree on a meeting spot outside any venue you visit together. If you’re ever separated in a crowd or an emergency, everyone knows exactly where to go.

Don’t Be In The Dark When The Lights Go Out

10 Habits Of People Who Are Never Broke

Final Word

Building situational awareness is one of the quietest, most lasting gifts you can give your family. It doesn’t require special equipment, expensive courses, or a suspicious view of the world. It requires only the habit of showing up, looking around, and paying attention to the life unfolding right in front of you. Stay present, Stay curious, and Stay safe. May God bless this world, Linda

Copyright Images: Woman with Phone AdobeStock_1022778565 By st.kolesnikov Dimensions 8192 x 5464px, Man On Smartphone AdobeStock_118586286 By joeycheung

The post Being Aware Of Your Surroundings appeared first on Food Storage Moms.

from Food Storage Moms

How to Treat Burns When There Is No Hospital

Burns are one of the most common serious injuries in any survival or grid-down scenario. Open fire cooking, camp stoves, improvised heating, chemical handling, and the general increase in manual labor that accompanies off-grid living all raise the risk significantly above what most people experience in normal modern life. And unlike a laceration or a sprain, a serious burn that is managed incorrectly does not just heal poorly. It becomes infected, it goes septic, and it kills.

The gap between what most people think they know about treating burns and what actually works in a field medicine context is wide. Most of the popular home remedies for burns, butter, toothpaste, ice, egg whites, are not just ineffective. They are actively dangerous in ways that become critical when no hospital is available to correct the damage they cause.

This guide covers burn treatment from the ground up: how to assess what you are dealing with, the correct immediate treatment protocol that field medics and wilderness medicine practitioners use, what to do in the days following a serious burn when infection risk peaks, and which herbal and natural remedies have genuine evidence behind them for burn healing. Read it now. Practice the protocol mentally. Have the supplies. Burns do not wait for you to look it up.

How to Assess Burn Severity: The Classification You Need to Know

Before you treat anything, you need to classify the burn correctly. Treatment decisions, supply requirements, infection risk, and the likelihood of survival without professional care all depend on burn depth and total body surface area involved.

• First-degree burns affect only the outermost layer of skin, the epidermis. The skin is red, painful, dry, and intact with no blistering. Sunburn is the most common example. First-degree burns are painful but heal reliably within three to five days with basic care. They do not produce significant infection risk and do not require the same urgency as deeper burns.
• Second-degree burns penetrate into the dermis layer beneath the epidermis. They are characterized by blistering, intense pain, wet or weeping appearance, and significant swelling. Superficial second-degree burns heal within two to three weeks if infection is prevented. Deep second-degree burns, which extend further into the dermis, take four to six weeks, are at significantly higher infection risk, and may produce permanent scarring. Second-degree burns are where field medicine management becomes genuinely critical.
• Third-degree burns destroy the full thickness of the skin, including nerve endings. They are paradoxically less painful than second-degree burns because the nerves have been destroyed. The burned area appears white, brown, black, or leathery and waxy. Third-degree burns cannot heal without skin grafting in a medical facility. In a true off-grid scenario, third-degree burns present a severe infection and fluid loss risk that is extremely difficult to manage without professional intervention. Survival depends on aggressive wound management and infection control while attempting to reach care.

Body surface area matters as much as depth. The Rule of Nines is the standard field assessment: each arm is nine percent of body surface area, each leg is 18 percent, the front torso is 18 percent, the back torso is 18 percent, the head is nine percent, and the groin is one percent. According to the American Burn Association, burns covering more than 20 percent of body surface area in adults, or 15 percent in children, represent major burns requiring aggressive fluid resuscitation that is extremely difficult to perform without medical equipment. Know these numbers before you need them.

Critical locations add urgency regardless of burn depth or area. Burns on the face, hands, feet, genitals, major joints, or that encircle a limb completely (circumferential burns) are significantly more dangerous and complex than burns of equivalent size elsewhere on the body. Facial burns suggest possible airway involvement, which is a life-threatening emergency.

Immediate Treatment: The First Ten Minutes

What you do in the first ten minutes after a burn occurs has more impact on the outcome than almost anything you do afterward. The correct immediate steps are simple, well-established, and very different from what most people instinctively do.

Cool the burn with cool running water immediately. Not cold water, not ice, not an ice pack. Cool water, between 59 and 77 degrees Fahrenheit, applied continuously for a minimum of twenty minutes. This is the single most important immediate intervention for a burn. Cooling arrests the ongoing tissue damage that continues after the heat source is removed, reduces pain significantly, and decreases the depth the burn ultimately reaches. Starting cooling within three minutes of the burn injury produces the best outcomes. Cooling started up to three hours after a burn still reduces damage, though the benefit decreases with time.

The twenty-minute duration is critical and frequently ignored. Most people cool a burn for two or three minutes and stop. The burn tissue continues conducting heat inward for far longer than it feels, and inadequate cooling time allows that heat to keep damaging deeper tissue after the immediate pain subsides. Set a timer. Do the full twenty minutes.

Remove jewelry, watches, and clothing from around the burned area immediately, before swelling begins. Swelling after a significant burn is rapid and severe. A ring on a burned hand can become a tourniquet within an hour of injury. Remove everything from the area as the first step, before even beginning the water cooling.

Do not apply anything to the burn during or immediately after cooling. No butter, no oil, no toothpaste, no egg white, no honey yet. Nothing. These substances trap heat in the tissue, introduce bacteria, and contaminate the wound in ways that complicate assessment and dramatically increase infection risk. The desire to apply something soothing is understandable but incorrect for the first twenty minutes.

After cooling is complete, cover the burn loosely with a clean, non-fluffy material. Cling film (plastic wrap) is the first-choice burn covering in emergency medicine precisely because it is clean, non-adherent, transparent for monitoring, and readily available. Lay it over the burn without wrapping it tightly. A clean plastic bag works for hand burns. In the absence of plastic wrap, a clean non-fluffy cloth or non-stick dressing is appropriate. Never use fluffy materials like cotton wool, regular towels, or adhesive bandages directly on a burn wound, as the fibers embed in the wound and cause severe pain and damage on removal.

What Not to Do: The Dangerous Myths That Make Burns Worse

This section may be the most important in the guide. The popular mythology around burn treatment contains several interventions that are not merely useless but actively worsen outcomes, particularly in the absence of hospital care to correct the damage.

Ice and ice packs cause frostbite on top of burn injury. The extreme cold of ice damages tissue that has already been damaged by heat, deepening the wound and extending the area of injury. The vasoconstriction ice causes also reduces blood flow to the area precisely when circulation is needed most for healing. Ice feels effective because it numbs pain aggressively, which is why the intuition to use it is so persistent. The pain relief is real. The tissue damage is also real.

Butter, oil, and any food-based fat should never be applied to a burn. Fats trap heat in the tissue, continuing the thermal damage after the heat source is removed. They also create an ideal growth medium for bacteria in a wound that is already highly vulnerable to infection. This is one of the oldest and most dangerous burn treatment myths across cultures worldwide.

Popping blisters intentionally removes the best wound covering nature provides. Intact blisters form a sterile, fluid-filled barrier over the damaged dermis that protects against infection and maintains the moist environment wounds need to heal. A burn blister that breaks on its own should be managed as an open wound. A blister that is deliberately popped has been converted from a protected wound into an open one with no benefit.

Toothpaste, egg white, and soy sauce are internet-era myths with no evidence behind them and documented cases of increased infection and scarring when applied to burns. The World Health Organization and burn care organizations globally identify home remedy application as one of the primary contributors to preventable burn complications in settings where hospital care is delayed.

Tight bandaging over a burn wound is dangerous. Swelling in burned tissue is rapid and significant. A bandage applied at a snug but comfortable tension at the time of dressing can become a constricting tourniquet within hours. All burn dressings must be applied loosely and monitored closely for increasing tightness as swelling develops.

Managing Second-Degree Burns Over Days and Weeks

A significant second-degree burn without access to hospital care requires daily wound management for two to six weeks. This is where preparation, supplies, and knowledge all converge. The goal is to keep the wound moist, clean, and protected from infection long enough for the body to rebuild the skin layers that were destroyed.

Daily wound cleaning is non-negotiable. Use clean water or a saline solution made from one teaspoon of non-iodized salt dissolved in one liter of boiled and cooled water. Gently irrigate the wound to remove debris, old dressing material, and any discharge. Do not scrub. Scrubbing disrupts the fragile new tissue forming at the wound edges and base and significantly increases healing time and scarring.

After cleaning, apply a non-adherent wound covering. Purpose-made non-stick dressings such as Telfa pads or petrolatum-impregnated gauze are the gold standard. In their absence, a very thin layer of plain white petroleum jelly applied directly to the wound surface before covering with clean gauze achieves the same non-adherent effect. The petroleum jelly prevents the gauze from bonding to the wound surface, which makes dressing changes possible without tearing away newly forming tissue.

Change dressings daily, or immediately if the dressing becomes saturated, dirty, or shows signs of infection. Each dressing change is an opportunity to assess the wound for healing progress and early infection signs. Wound inspection is not optional. Infection in a burn wound progresses rapidly, and catching it early is the difference between manageable and life-threatening.

Fluid intake must increase significantly after a major burn. Burned tissue loses fluid at a dramatically accelerated rate, and dehydration compounds every other aspect of the recovery. The Parkland Formula, used in hospital burn care for fluid resuscitation, calculates fluid needs based on burn area and body weight. For field reference: a significant burn requires roughly two to four times normal daily fluid intake. Push fluids aggressively and continuously in the first 24 to 48 hours after a major burn.

Pain management without pharmaceutical options is a genuine challenge in a grid-down burn scenario. Keeping the wound covered and moist reduces pain significantly compared to an exposed wound. Willow bark tea, which contains salicin, the precursor to aspirin, provides mild to moderate pain relief and anti-inflammatory activity. Valerian root can be used for its mild sedative effect to allow sleep. These are not equivalent to pharmaceutical analgesia, but they provide meaningful support in their absence.

Infection: The Burn Complication That Kills

In a hospital, burn infection is managed with systemic antibiotics, wound debridement, and in severe cases surgical intervention. Without those tools, burn wound infection is the most common cause of death from burns that were initially survivable. Learning to recognize it early and respond immediately is not optional knowledge.

Normal wound appearance during healing includes pink or red wound edges, clear to slightly yellow wound fluid (serous exudate), and gradual reduction in wound size as new skin forms from the edges inward. These are positive signs.

Early infection signs include increasing redness that spreads beyond the wound edge, warmth that extends beyond the wound margins, swelling that is increasing rather than decreasing after the first 48 hours, and wound discharge that changes from clear to cloudy, green, or foul-smelling. The wound may develop a grayish or greenish discoloration. The person may develop fever, increased heart rate, and general deterioration in wellbeing.

Systemic infection (sepsis) signs are the emergency within the emergency: high fever above 103 degrees Fahrenheit or paradoxically very low temperature, confusion or altered mental status, rapid heart rate, rapid breathing, and a sense of severe illness disproportionate to the visible wound. Burn sepsis without hospital-level intervention has a very high mortality rate.

In a grid-down scenario with no antibiotics, the response to early wound infection is aggressive wound irrigation, increasing the frequency of dressing changes, applying any available topical antimicrobials, and escalating the use of herbal antimicrobial preparations. Honey application becomes first-line treatment, not a supplementary option, once infection is suspected. Garlic preparations have documented activity against the organisms most commonly responsible for burn wound infection. According to the National Institutes of Health, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Staphylococcus aureus are the primary bacterial culprits in burn wound infection, and both have demonstrated sensitivity to allicin, the active compound in garlic, in laboratory studies.

Raw Honey: The Most Evidence-Backed Natural Burn Treatment

Of all the natural remedies proposed for burn care, raw honey has the most substantial evidence base and the closest alignment with the requirements of field medicine burn management. It is not a folk remedy that happens to feel soothing. It is a clinically studied wound treatment with documented mechanisms of action that directly address the needs of a healing burn wound.

Honey maintains a moist wound environment, which clinical research has consistently shown accelerates wound healing compared to dry wound management. It is naturally non-adherent to wound tissue, meaning dressings incorporating honey can be removed without tearing newly forming skin. It has a pH of between 3.2 and 4.5, which is acidic enough to inhibit the growth of most wound pathogens. It produces low levels of hydrogen peroxide through enzymatic activity, providing sustained low-level antimicrobial action without the tissue toxicity of direct hydrogen peroxide application. And it contains defensins and other antimicrobial proteins that provide additional pathogen inhibition.

Manuka honey, produced from the nectar of the manuka tree in New Zealand and Australia, has the highest documented antimicrobial activity of any commercially available honey and has been the subject of the most burn and wound care research. It is rated by its Unique Manuka Factor (UMF) or methylglyoxal (MGO) content. UMF 10 or higher, or MGO 250 or higher, is the range used in wound care research. Standard raw local honey is also effective, though somewhat less potent in its antimicrobial activity than high-UMF manuka.

Application method: after wound cleaning, apply a thin layer of raw honey directly to the wound surface or to a clean gauze pad that is then applied to the wound. Cover with a secondary absorbent dressing and secure loosely. Change daily. Honey dressings for burns have been the subject of multiple randomized controlled trials, with a systematic review published in research indexed by the National Library of Medicine concluding that honey dressings reduced healing time and infection rates in superficial and partial thickness burns compared to conventional dressings.

Aloe Vera: First Aid for First-Degree and Superficial Burns

Aloe vera gel is the most widely used natural remedy for minor burns, and for first-degree and superficial second-degree burns it has genuine evidence behind it. Its active compounds include glucomannans, gibberellins, and acemannan, which promote wound healing through fibroblast stimulation and collagen synthesis. Aloe also has anti-inflammatory activity through inhibition of thromboxane B2 and prostaglandin production, and it maintains the moist wound environment that accelerates epithelial healing.

A meta-analysis published in peer-reviewed literature found that aloe vera gel reduced healing time in first and second-degree burns compared to silver sulfadiazine cream, which is a pharmaceutical standard for burn care. This is a meaningful comparison that puts aloe vera’s performance in clinical context rather than simply asserting that it helps.

For field use, fresh aloe vera gel from a freshly cut leaf is the most potent preparation. Split a thick aloe leaf lengthwise and scrape the clear inner gel directly onto the burn surface. Apply two to three times daily for first-degree burns. For superficial second-degree burns, aloe can be applied between honey dressing changes but should not replace the honey dressings, which provide better antimicrobial protection and wound environment management for deeper wounds.

Every homestead and prepper property should have at least one mature aloe vera plant growing in a pot that can be brought indoors in cold weather. It is a zero-maintenance plant that provides immediate first aid for burns, sunburn, minor skin wounds, and several other applications. This is one of the highest-value medicinal plants you can grow relative to the effort required.

Plantain Leaf: The Field Dressing Hiding in Plain Sight

Common plantain (Plantago major and Plantago lanceolata) grows as a weed in virtually every temperate climate lawn, field, and roadside. Its leaves contain allantoin, which promotes cell proliferation and tissue regeneration, aucubin, which has anti-inflammatory and antimicrobial activity, and mucilage, which soothes and protects damaged tissue surfaces. It is the field medicine burn and wound herb of the natural world: available without preparation anywhere it grows, applied directly, and effective for the immediate soothing and early protection of minor burns when nothing else is available.

Fresh plantain leaf poultice for a minor burn: crush or chew several fresh plantain leaves to release the juice and break down the cell structure, apply the mashed leaf material directly to the burn surface, and hold in place with a cloth. The allantoin and mucilage contact the wound immediately. This is appropriate for first-degree burns and as a temporary measure for minor second-degree burns while better dressing materials are being located. It is not a substitute for honey dressings in ongoing wound management.

Plantain leaf tea made from dried leaves can also be used as a wound irrigation solution, providing the anti-inflammatory and antimicrobial compounds in a liquid form suitable for washing deeper wounds. Two teaspoons of dried leaf steeped in just-boiled water for fifteen minutes, cooled completely, and used as a wound rinse provides a gentle, mildly antimicrobial irrigation solution.

Supplies to Stock Before You Need Them

The difference between managing a serious burn and watching it become fatal in a grid-down scenario is almost entirely determined by what you have on hand before the injury occurs. Treatment improvised from whatever is available is always inferior to treatment performed with correct supplies. Stock these now.

• Non-adherent wound dressings (Telfa pads or equivalent) in multiple sizes. These are the single most important supply for burn wound management. Without them, every dressing change becomes a wound-damaging event.
• Medical-grade petroleum jelly (plain Vaseline, unscented). A backup for creating non-adherent dressings when purpose-made products run out.
• Cling film or plastic wrap. Identified by the UK’s National Health Service as the recommended immediate burn covering in field settings. Multiple rolls.
• Sterile gauze pads and rolls in multiple sizes. Secondary dressing material for covering and securing primary wound dressings.
• Medical tape that is hypoallergenic and removable without skin damage.
• High-UMF manuka honey, sealed and shelf-stable. Several jars. This is your primary topical antimicrobial for infected or at-risk burn wounds.
• Saline solution or the supplies to make it: non-iodized salt and the ability to boil water.
• Oral rehydration salts for fluid replacement in major burns.
• A mature aloe vera plant in a pot at your primary location.
• Dried plantain leaf for wound irrigation tea and as a supplementary poultice material.
• A thermometer for monitoring fever as an infection indicator.

The American Burn Association provides resource guides for burn prevention and emergency care that are worth downloading and including in your printed preparedness reference library before grid-down conditions make internet access unavailable.

When to Make Every Effort to Reach Professional Care

This guide is written for scenarios where professional medical care genuinely is not accessible. It is not an argument for avoiding hospitals when hospitals are available. Knowing when a burn exceeds what field management can reliably address is as important as knowing how to manage what it can.

Make every possible effort to reach professional care for any third-degree burn regardless of size, any burn covering more than ten percent of body surface area, any burn involving the face or airway, any burn that encircles a limb completely, any burn in a child under five or an adult over 60, any burn with signs of inhalation injury including singed nasal hairs, hoarse voice, or soot in the airway, and any burn wound showing systemic signs of infection such as fever, confusion, or rapid deterioration.

The techniques in this guide can buy time, reduce damage, and in some cases manage minor burns to full recovery. They are not equivalent to hospital-level burn care for serious injuries. Use this knowledge as what it is: the best available option when no better option exists, and a bridge to professional care whenever professional care can be reached.

The Medical Knowledge You Cannot Afford To Lose

Most people assume hospitals, pharmacies, and emergency services will always be there when something goes wrong. But serious burns are exactly the kind of injury that become life-threatening fast when professional care is delayed, overwhelmed, or unavailable.

That is why practical medical knowledge matters so much.

The Home Doctor was created to help ordinary people handle real medical emergencies at home using step-by-step guidance designed for situations where help may not arrive quickly. It covers burns, infections, wounds, fractures, respiratory emergencies, dehydration, shock, and dozens of other critical situations that become far more dangerous during disasters or grid-down conditions.

Inside, you will find practical treatment protocols, emergency medical procedures, survival-focused healthcare knowledge, and easy-to-understand illustrations written for normal people — not medical professionals.

If you care about preparedness, self-reliance, and protecting your family when modern systems fail, this is one of the most valuable references you can own!

Final Thoughts

Burns are a high-probability injury in any scenario that involves increased reliance on fire, fuel, and manual processes. They are also one of the injuries where the gap between correct and incorrect immediate treatment is widest in its consequences. Ice or cool water. Butter or nothing. Popped blisters or protected ones. These are not equivalent choices. The wrong one can convert a manageable wound into a life-threatening one within days.

Know the classification system before you are standing over an injured person trying to remember it. Have the supplies before the injury occurs. Practice the immediate protocol until it is instinctive. Cool water, twenty minutes, cover loosely, no home remedies on open wounds, honey for infection control, and daily wound assessment until healed.

This is not complicated medicine. It is disciplined application of established field medicine principles with the tools available. The preparation and the knowledge together are what make it work.

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How to Prep as a Senior on a Budget

You already know why prepping matters. You’ve probably been doing some version of it for years – maybe decades. You understand water storage, you’ve got food rotation down, and you don’t need anyone explaining what a bug-out bag is. 

So let’s skip the 101 stuff and talk about the real challenge: how do you keep building and maintaining your prepping strategy when you’re living on a fixed income, dealing with rising costs, and facing the physical realities that come with getting older?

Prepping on a tight budget in your 60s, 70s, or beyond is a completely different game than prepping on a tight budget at 35. The priorities shift, the strategies need to be smarter, and some of the advice floating around online just doesn’t apply to your situation. 

Rethinking Your Preps Around What Your Body Needs Now

Here’s something that doesn’t get talked about enough in prepping circles: your supply list from ten years ago might not match your reality today. If your knees aren’t what they used to be, that bug-out plan involving a five-mile hike with a 40-pound pack needs an honest second look. If your diet has changed because of blood pressure, diabetes, or heart issues, that stockpile of high-sodium canned goods might actually work against you in a long-term situation.

Take a hard look at your food stores with your current health in mind. Low-sodium options, foods that are easy to chew and digest, and meals that don’t require a lot of physical effort to prepare all deserve a spot in your rotation. 

Think about calorie density too, but through the lens of what your body can actually use. Younger preppers can get away with living on rice and beans for weeks. If you’re managing blood sugar levels or need to maintain muscle mass to stay mobile, you need more protein and healthy fats in your stockpile. 

Some of the best budget options for that include:

• Canned fish (tuna, salmon, sardines) – high in protein, long shelf life, and often on sale for around a dollar per can. Sardines, in particular pack a lot of nutrition into a tiny, cheap package.
• Peanut butter and other nut butters – calorie-dense, full of healthy fats, and they don’t need refrigeration until opened. A great source of steady energy that won’t spike your blood sugar.
• Shelf-stable protein drinks – not the cheapest option per unit, but worth picking up when they go on clearance.
• Powdered eggs and powdered milk are versatile, lightweight, and they last for years when stored properly. Both give you solid protein without taking up much space.
• Canned beans and lentils – you already know these, but they’re worth mentioning because they offer one of the best protein-per-dollar ratios of any shelf-stable food out there.

If you haven’t come across it yet, Joel Lambert – a former Navy SEAL – put together an affordable 90-day meal plan built around the kind of practical thinking he picked up during his military career. It’s designed to help you build up your food supply gradually without blowing your budget, so if you’re looking for a structured way to stock up over time rather than all at once, it’s worth checking it out. Take me to the plan!

The Medication Problem (And How to Get Ahead of It)

 If you’re on daily medications, you already know this is your biggest vulnerability.

A two-week grid-down situation is manageable on stored food and water.

Running out of blood pressure meds, insulin, or blood thinners during that same two weeks could put you in the ground.

A few strategies worth exploring if you haven’t already:

• Discount pharmacy programs like Mark Cuban’s Cost Plus Drugs sometimes beat insurance prices on generics. It’s worth checking your specific medications against these programs, because the savings on certain drugs can be big enough to let you buy an extra month’s supply out of pocket.
• Pill-splitting with your doctor’s approval can stretch your budget further. Some drugs come in double-strength tablets for nearly the same price as the regular dose, which effectively cuts your per-dose cost in half. Not all medications are safe to split, so this is a conversation to have with your doctor, not something to try on your own.
• Manufacturer assistance programs are underused by a lot of people who actually qualify. Most major pharmaceutical companies have patient assistance programs for people on fixed incomes, and the application process is usually simpler than you’d expect.
• A medication triage list is something every prepper with prescriptions should have. Go beyond just listing drug names and doses – write down what each medication is for, what happens if you miss doses, and which ones are absolutely critical versus which ones you could temporarily do without. That kind of information could be vital if someone else needs to make decisions about your care during an emergency.

Strategic Stockpiling

You already know the basics of building a food supply. The question at this stage is how to do it efficiently when every dollar counts and prices keep climbing. A few approaches that experienced preppers on fixed incomes have found effective:

• Track loss leader sales cycles. Grocery stores regularly sell staples below cost to get you in the door. These sales tend to repeat every 6 to 8 weeks for most items. If canned vegetables go on sale for $0.50 this week, buy as many as your budget allows, because you know the regular price is $1.29 and you won’t see that deal again for a month and a half.
• Shop at ethnic and international grocery stores. These often have much better prices on rice, beans, spices, cooking oils, and other staples compared to regular supermarkets. A 25-pound bag of rice at an Asian grocery store can cost half of what you’d pay at a chain store for the same quality.
• Hit the dented can shelves and clearance sections. A lot of preppers overlook these because they’re focused on buying “prepping food” from specialty retailers. A dented can of beef stew for $0.75 is the same food as the $3.49 one on the regular shelf – the contents don’t care about cosmetic damage to the packaging.
• Don’t overlook grocery store loyalty programs and coupon apps. Stacking a digital coupon on top of a sale price on top of a loyalty discount can get you food at close to free. Apps like Ibotta or store-specific apps can give you cash back that adds up over time.
• Try Amish bulk stores. Their prices on dry goods like oats, flour, sugar, powdered milk, and spices are often significantly lower than any grocery chain because they buy in bulk and operate with almost no overhead. A pound of rolled oats that costs $4 at a supermarket might run you $0.80 at an Amish store. If you’ve never been to one, it’s worth the trip just to see what’s available.

Physical Security When You Can’t Rely on Speed or Strength

This is a topic that a lot of prepping content dances around, but it matters. In a serious emergency, you need to be able to protect yourself and your supplies, and the physical realities of aging mean your security approach needs to be different than someone half your age.

Layered home security doesn’t have to be expensive, and the best part is that most of these measures work around the clock without requiring you to do anything:

• Reinforce your door frames and swap in 3-inch screws on your strike plates. This costs almost nothing and makes it much harder for someone to kick in a door. It’s one of the highest-value security upgrades you can make for under $10.
• Apply window security film to ground-floor windows. It won’t make them unbreakable, but it turns a one-kick entry into a noisy, time-consuming process that most intruders won’t bother with.
• Install motion-activated solar lights around entry points. Solar means no wiring and no electricity cost, and bright light is one of the best deterrents there is.
• Plant thorny bushes under windows – roses, barberry, hawthorn, or holly. It sounds old-fashioned, but a dense, spiky hedge under a window is a real physical barrier that maintains itself year after year.
• Get a loud, battery-operated door alarm for a few dollars. These work even when the power is out and can alert you (and the whole neighborhood) if someone tries to force entry.
• Consider the Anti-Looter Kit for an all-in-one off-grid security package. Designed by former CIA officer Jason Hanson, it comes in a waterproof tactical case and includes a perimeter tripwire, motion sensors, window alarms, a door jammer with built-in siren, and a solar-powered floodlight shaped like a surveillance camera. Everything runs on batteries, so it keeps working when the grid goes down and traditional alarm systems don’t. If you’d rather not piece together your security setup one item at a time, this anti-looter kit covers a lot of ground in one purchase. 

If you’re a firearm owner, make sure you can still operate your chosen weapon comfortably and accurately. Grip strength, recoil management, and fine motor skills change over time, and there’s no shame in switching to something that works better for you now. A firearm you can handle well is always better than one that’s technically more powerful but harder for you to use effectively.

Energy Independence on a Shoestring

Power outages hit harder when you’re older. Temperature regulation becomes a real health concern, medical devices need electricity, and getting around in the dark with limited mobility is a recipe for a fall that could be more dangerous than the emergency itself.

If a whole-house generator is out of your price range (and for most people on fixed incomes, it is), think in tiers:

• Tier 1 – the basics (under $50): Flashlights, extra batteries, a battery-powered or hand-crank radio, and a few USB battery banks to keep your phone alive. You probably already have most of this, but check that everything still works and that your batteries are fresh.
• Tier 2 – extended capability ($100-300): A portable power station in the 300-500 watt-hour range can keep phones charged, run a CPAP machine, and power LED lights for several days. These have come down in price over the past couple of years. Pair one with a small folding solar panel and you’ve got a renewable charging solution that doesn’t require fuel.
• Tier 3 – serious backup ($300+): A dual-fuel generator (gasoline and propane) gives you real power when you need it. This is a bigger investment, but if you watch for end-of-season sales or refurbished units, you can sometimes find a solid one for half the retail price.
• The Modular Backyard Power Plant ($37 for the guide + component costs): If you’d rather ditch fuel-dependent generators altogether, this DIY solar system designed by Ron Melchiore lets you build your own backup power in modules. Start with the first module to cover basics like a small fridge, phone charging, and lights for three days, then add a second or third module later as your budget allows. The panels fold up, the battery bank rolls on wheels, and the whole thing runs on sunshine with zero maintenance and zero fuel costs. Also, if you go on this link, you can get a bundle deal – for the same $37 you get the guide, step-by-step build videos, and three additional prepping e-books.

For heating in cold climates, a Mr. Buddy-style propane heater with a carbon monoxide detector is a proven combination that a lot of preppers rely on. The upfront cost is moderate, and small propane canisters are easy to stockpile gradually. Just make sure you’re following the ventilation requirements – carbon monoxide doesn’t care how experienced you are.

Cooking without power is another area where you can save money by keeping it simple. A single-burner butane stove with a case of fuel canisters runs about $25-30 total and will give you weeks of cooking capability. If you already have a good camp stove, you’re set – just make sure you’re maintaining it and rotating your fuel.

And if you want a cooking option that costs nothing to run after the initial purchase, a solar oven is hard to beat. You can buy a decent one for around $50-150.

An even better option is to build your own with cardboard, aluminum foil, and a piece of glass if you’re feeling handy – you can find a tutorial here. They won’t give you a fast sear on a steak, but they’ll slow-cook soups, stews, rice, beans, and even bake bread using nothing but sunlight. On a clear day, you can reach temperatures between 250°F and 350°F, which is plenty for most meals. 

Here’s the solar oven I made + the instructions:

Community Is a Force Multiplier

You’ve heard “community is the best prep” a thousand times, and it’s true, but let’s talk about it in practical terms rather than warm fuzzy ones. On a fixed income, you can’t buy your way to full self-sufficiency. Nobody can, really, but limited funds make it even more obvious. What you can do is build mutual aid relationships that fill gaps in your preps without costing money.

Who Will Betray You First When SHTF

Think about what you bring to the table. Years of experience, knowledge, and skills have real value in a crisis. Maybe you know how to preserve food, repair small engines, sew, or handle basic medical situations. These skills are worth bartering, and they position you as someone worth helping rather than someone who only needs help.

If you’re part of a church, a veteran’s organization, a ham radio club, or any other group, those relationships are already partially built. Strengthening them with an eye toward mutual support during emergencies is one of the highest-value, lowest-cost things you can do.

Keep It Going Without Burning Out or Going Broke

You’ve been at this long enough to know that perfect preparedness doesn’t exist. Focus your limited resources on the most likely emergencies in your area and the scenarios that would hit you hardest given your specific health, mobility, and living situation.

Set a small monthly prepping budget – even $20 or $30 – and stick to it. That’s $240-360 a year, and if you’re spending it wisely based on actual needs rather than impulse buys from prepping websites, it goes a lot further than you might expect. 

Now, I know you’ve probably collected your share of prepping books and guides over the years. But be honest – how many of them were actually written with your life in mind? Most prepping content is aimed at younger folks with bigger budgets, stronger backs, and fewer medications to manage.

That’s what makes The Lost Frontier Handbook different. It was put together around the kind of knowledge that our grandparents and great-grandparents lived by even when they were 90 years old – practical and low-cost skills that don’t require peak physical condition.

We’re talking about building a food stockpile that won’t spoil on you, sourcing clean water completely off-grid, rediscovering powerful natural remedies that modern medicine left behind, and knowing exactly how to stretch every dollar if the economy takes another hard turn.

You might think you already know most of this. And maybe you do. But every time I go through it, I find something I hadn’t considered – a better method, a simpler approach, a trick that saves money I didn’t know I was wasting. Good information has a way of doing that.

The Lost Frontier Handbook is one of the more affordable prepping resources out there, and it reads like it was written for people who’ve already been through a thing or two in life. Do yourself a favor and grab a copy – the kind of knowledge in this book isn’t the sort that stays available forever!

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The post How to Prep as a Senior on a Budget appeared first on Ask a Prepper.

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How to Render Lard: Step by Step Guide

Estimated reading time: 16 minutes

Our Pioneer Ancestors Rendered Lard on a Regular Basis. Did They Know Something We Don’t?

A lot of people are quick to say “no” to lard as a cooking ingredient. That’s unfortunate. They certainly have their reasons, and some are well-founded, but lard isn’t the bad guy that many people make it out to be. Moderation is the key, and a well-timed fish fry or a deep-fried chicken dinner in lard will leave everyone smacking their lips. Let’s look at the facts.

Yes, lard is high in saturated fat, and saturated fats are high in LDL cholesterol (also known as “bad” cholesterol). But according to Harvard Health Publishing, trans fat is what you really need to worry about. You don't want to ingest a single gram of it.

Saturated fats, on the other hand, are all right in moderation. In fact, a meta-analysis of 21 studies was unable to find a significant link between saturated fat and heart disease. Doctors say you should still keep saturated fat at 10% of your calories or less just to be safe, but there is no reason to remove it altogether.

Lard: The Big Energy Booster

In my opinion, it's a good thing that lard is high in calories. It may seem odd to laud the benefits of calories from fat, but our bodies produce more internal heat from fat calories than from other types of calories. Our bodies also need fat for the proper functioning of many of our organs, including our brains. For the record, our brains are largely made of fat.

On the other hand, calories from carbohydrates offer a quick burst of energy and internal body heat but only for a short duration. In fact, it’s the high degree of carbohydrates in our diets that cause us to retain fat for the simple reason that it’s easier for our bodies to burn carbohydrates than fat.

This is why some of the high-fat/high-protein diets actually result in weight loss and cholesterol reduction. When we deny our bodies the easy luxury of carbohydrates like sugar and starches, we go into overdrive and burn the fat. That’s a good thing and that makes saturated fats less dangerous to health than some people assume. The telegram is simple: Enjoy the lard but skip the donut.

Lard: The Big Flavor Booster

Many people tout the flavor benefits of lard. Some people say it makes the best deep-fried chicken, is the perfect fat for a fish-fry, and adds a flavor to biscuits that a trans-fat like shortening can’t. In Belgium, French fries are traditionally deep fried in duck fat, but lard comes in a close second for the world’s best French fries.

Lard: The Money Saver

If you’re on a tight budget, skip the margarine and render the lard. It’s a great replacement for any recipe that calls for butter, shortening, or margarine and also saves you on the price of cooking oils. It makes a great pie crust and works with most any pastry recipe.

Raw Lard Sources

Finding raw lard for rendering can be a bit of a challenge. If you live in relatively close proximity to a pig farm, you’re in luck. They’ll often have an ample supply and it’s a low-cost commodity. Unfortunately, most of us don’t live close to a pig farm.

You would think butcher shops would have a good supply, but they either don’t have it or simply dispose of it because the low cost isn’t worth the effort of packaging or space in a refrigerator which can display higher margin meats.

Most grocery stores also present a dead-end, but there’s a solution at certain kinds of grocery stores. Look for the stores that appeal to a diverse and ethnic customer base. Many people from other countries and cultures aren’t averse to a coarse item like raw lard and appreciate its value as a flavor enhancer and calorie producer.

When you do find lard at an ethnic grocery store, it will typically be packaged with skin attached to the fat. You want that. The skin will surrender some lard during the rendering process and the skin can be further deep-fried to create some excellent pork rinds, usually referred to as cracklings. They’re not for everybody, but if you’ve never tried one, you’re missing the joy of a farm boy’s potato chip.

Not All Lard Is Created Equal

Here's something that'll make a real difference in your results: where the fat comes from on the pig matters quite a bit.

Leaf lard is the gold standard. It comes from the fat surrounding the pig's kidneys and internal organs, and it has a very mild, almost neutral flavor. This is what serious bakers are after. Roll it into a pie crust and you'll wonder why you ever used shortening. It's harder to find but worth the search.

Back fat is what you'll most commonly encounter, and it's what most of this guide is working with. It comes from — you guessed it — the pig's back, and it renders into a perfectly good cooking lard with a slightly more pronounced pork flavor. Great for frying, sautéing, and most savory cooking.

Fatback is similar to back fat but includes the skin and is often salt-cured. If you find it at an ethnic market, it works fine for rendering, just be aware that the cured variety will add a saltier, smokier note to whatever you cook.

The short version: if you're baking pies and pastries, track down some leaf lard. If you're frying chicken or seasoning a cast iron pan, back fat is your workhorse.

Lard Rendering Tools

These tools are tied to the process steps for rendering lard. They include:

• Kitchen shears which do a better job of cutting through the pork fat and skin than even the sharpest knife, and a cutting board to protect any countertop from the cutting process.

• A 7-quart crockpot or larger slow cooker to render the lard at a low temperature for a long period of time (24 to 72 hours or more depending on the quantity you are rendering).

• A large, metal slotted spoon for stirring the lard while it renders and to remove bits of skin as you go, and a large, metal ladle for collecting and pouring the lard into jars.

• Sufficient canning jars, either one quart or one pint in size, plus lids. You can use smaller jars if you want a smaller, meal-size portion.

• A canning funnel to prevent the lard from dripping onto the sides of the jars or rim and Mason jar tongs for lifting the hots jars from the hot water bath.

• A large pot for hot-water-bath processing to sterilize the jars before filling with lard.

• A large, clean towel for draining and drying the sterilized jars, along with dry washcloths or paper towels to occasionally clean and dry your hands after handling a lot of raw fat.

• And don’t forget the raw lard.

If you’re not using a crockpot, you can use a large stockpot over hot coals outside. A wood fire in a kettle grill burned down to coals is a good option.

Make sure you have a deep and large stock pot and don’t overfill it with raw lard. 2/3 full is the limit. A grease fire over open coals is serious stuff.

Go low and slow and burn your wood to coals in a separate area and transfer the coals under the pot with a shovel as you go. A second kettle grill could serve as your burning pit to keep you supplied with hot coals.

Kettle grills are a good option for outdoor lard rendering because it’s easier to manage the coals and the heat. You may need to tend the hot coal fire under the stock pot in the middle of the night to keep the heat going. If it cools down substantially, you may attract various animals who can’t resist the aroma of pork fat in the wind.

And here’s a big fat tip. Pork fat can be soft, loose, and very greasy. To firm it up and make your cutting job easier, freeze the thawed pork skins for 10 to 15 minutes to give it a bit more resistance to the edges of your kitchen shears.

Rendering The Lard

1. Use kitchen shears to cut the pork skins into pieces around 1-inch square with the fat still attached.

2. Fill a 7-quart crockpot ¾ full of the pork fat chunks and set the heat for low. Take the time to put the first layer into the crockpot fat side down.

3. If you want, you can start on high until the rendering lard starts to bubble and then turn the crockpot to low.

4. Keep the pot covered while the lard renders. Bubbles can and will splatter grease.
5. As the lard renders it will assume a clear and light brown translucency.

6. While the lard is rendering, it’s time to sterilize the jars. Add enough water to a large pot to cover the canning jars you are planning to use. Toss the lids into the pot with the jars and boil uncovered for 10-minutes.
7. Stir the crockpot of lard chunks gently with the slotted spoon from time to time to allow each piece to be exposed to the heat of the lard for further rendering.

8. Carefully remove the sterilized jars from the hot-water-bath with jar lifting tongs and allow to dry on a clean, dry towel with the open ends down.

9. When it appears that sufficient lard has rendered to fill a jar, carefully ladle it into a sterilized jar using the canning funnel to prevent drips. You don’t want any drips on the rims because that can compromise the seal of the lid. You may need one of your dry washcloths to protect your hands from the heat of the jar while you screw on the lid.

(If you are rendering over open, hot coals outdoors, remove the pot from the coals to some distance before ladling into a jar so that any drips don’t catch fire and ignite the lard in the pot).

10. Allow the jars to rest for 12 to 24 hours at room temperature. You can accelerate the process by refrigerating the jars. The translucent fat will solidify into a bright white.

The Oven Method: A Reliable Alternative

Don't have a large crockpot or just prefer a more hands-off approach? The oven does a beautiful job of rendering lard, and it's hard to argue with the simplicity.

Preheat your oven to 225–250°F. Cut your fat into 1-inch chunks just like you would for the crockpot method, and place them in a large, oven-safe Dutch oven or roasting pan. Slide it in uncovered and let the oven do the work. Every 30 minutes or so, give it a gentle stir. Depending on the quantity, you're looking at anywhere from 2 to 4 hours.

The oven method is a little faster than the crockpot, gives you slightly better control over the temperature, and doesn't require you to babysit it through the night. The tradeoff is that the house will smell very much like a pork processing facility for a few hours, which is either a wonderful thing or a problem depending on your household.

Once the fat chunks have rendered down to small, golden cracklings floating in clear liquid fat, you're done. Ladle it into your sterilized jars just like the crockpot method and you're on your way.

Don't Throw Away the Cracklings

After you've ladled off the rendered lard, you'll be left with a batch of small, browned bits of skin and connective tissue at the bottom of the pot. Don't even think about tossing them.

These are cracklings — or pork rinds, depending on where you grew up — and they're a legitimate food in their own right. If they came out of the crockpot on the softer side, spread them on a baking sheet and run them under the broiler for a few minutes until they puff up and crisp. Hit them with a little salt while they're still hot.

They won't win any beauty contests but they're high in protein, deeply savory, and completely shelf-stable for a day or two once cooled. In a homestead or survival context, that's bonus calories from something you would have otherwise discarded. Salt them heavy and they'll last a bit longer. Your pioneer ancestors didn't waste a thing, and neither should you.

Storing Your Lard

Canning

Lard can be stored up to 5 years if canned properly in sterilized jars, is unopened and stored in a cool, dark place like a dark pantry, basement, or root cellar. Whenever you open a stored jar of lard, smell the lard first. If it has an off color, odor, or a mildew smell, discard it. A refrigerator is an ideal choice, but lard must be refrigerated after opening and used within a month.

Freezing

You can also freeze your lard. A simple way to do this is with ice cube trays. Simply pour the lard directly into an ice cube tray, let it set up at room temperature, freeze, and then place the cubes into a resealable, plastic bag.

This is a great way to manage portion control. There are two tablespoons in the average ice cube, so you can easily determine the proper portion for any recipe. Better yet, partially thawed ice cubes can be cut up into slices and make the perfect addition for making a pie crust.

Can I Recycle Lard?

It’s not recommended to try and recycle lard that has been used for deep frying unless you filter it extremely well. This would include filtering through a mesh filter and either a layer of cheesecloth or even a coffee filter to remove any particulate matter floating in the yard after frying.

Most restaurants filter their oils and fats and re-use them, but their equipment and process are highly specialized. Lard is easily contaminated by anything that was deep fried. Once you’re done with the chicken frying or fish fry, either filter carefully before reuse or dispose of the used lard.

Now That You Know the Facts and the Fats, Give Lard Rendering a Try

If you want to try a low-impact approach to lard rendering, you can remove the fat from a shank or butt portion of ham and cut it into chunks and render it in your crockpot. You won’t get a lot of lard but enough to see what a difference the flavor of lard can make for anything you bake or fry.

Who knows, you may like it enough to search out that ethnic grocery store and really roll up your sleeves and surrender to the render.

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The post How to Render Lard: Step by Step Guide appeared first on Homestead Survival Site.

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