How to Use Your Prepper Journal
When the power goes out, for most of us, so does the Internet. In fact it doesn't take much to lose Internet connection. For quite a few years, every time it rained we lost Internet - and we live in a major city in Australia. Thankfully that has finally been fixed!
In a complete grid down situation however, internet will be down for all of us.
Horrible as this thought is, what is even more horrific is realising just how often we use the internet for information. To look up a recipe or pay a bill, find a movie, book a holiday or even a doctor's appointment, do the grocery shopping or buy a Christmas present. We look up how to grow asparagus or when to prune the fruit trees.
Youtube is often our research library, with our favourite channels saved so we can find them and refer back to them often. We use email and messenger as our main means of communication. You go to your phone or computer for that information. You even use your phone for your shopping list.
So when the internet isn't there, how do we do this?
Simple! We go old school. That simply means we use actual recipe books, or gardening books or go to our address book to find the address of a friend so we can send a letter.
Now if you are like most people in 2021, you don't have a lot of your important information actually written down in a hard copy you can refer to.
Take a few minutes once a week or so to think about the information you refer to often and get a hard copy of it. That favourite recipe - Cream Cheese Patties or Lunchbox Cookies are readily available online, but write them into your recipe book or print them and pop them into a binder.
As you watch your favourite YouTube channels, take notes. Write them down, keep them in a folder or notebook so you can refer to them without relying on the internet.
Keep an old fashioned address book. If you're worried about having to update it, write in pencil so you can just use an eraser to wipe out the old info and write in the new.
Keep a hard copy of important information like bank details, bill accounts, insurance information, medical history and information.
Keep it all together in a binder so it's easy to find and use and update.
Build a library of books.
Health books - hydrotherapy, natural remedies, one I can recommend is Back to Eden by Jethro Kloss. Now this is a very old book, it has been in my library for over 40 years, I was a teenager when I bought it. I also have the kindle version. If you can get a hard copy, do. It is full of recipes and ways to use the herbs, grasses, flowers, bark of the trees around us to keep us healthy.
Gather gardening books and books on agriculture. Books that will help you identify plants, trees, berries, flowers.
Get skillset books. Gardening, cooking, sewing, knitting, first aid, mechanical maintenance, canning and preserving, natural remedies, building, survival skills.
Add all these books to your library. You don't need to do it all at once. Look for them in op shops and secondhand bookshops. They are there. So many buy them, all gung ho, and then apathy or laziness takes over and they can't be bothered so they ditch those oh so very valuable resources.
We need books, hard copies, because the internet won't be available.
We are living in a virtual world. We all use the internet every day - you're using it right now to read this article!
If you think you aren't reliant on it, try going one weekend - just 48 hours - without it. No YouTube, Netflix, emails, facebook. No Google. Stay offline for 48 hours and every time you go to use it, note it down.
You'll be surprised at just how reliant you are on the internet.
Don't think the internet can't disappear; it can, it will, it has.
Build your library of resources so you are prepared when it does happen.
Be smart, be a preparer and be prepared.
In a complete grid down situation however, internet will be down for all of us.
Horrible as this thought is, what is even more horrific is realising just how often we use the internet for information. To look up a recipe or pay a bill, find a movie, book a holiday or even a doctor's appointment, do the grocery shopping or buy a Christmas present. We look up how to grow asparagus or when to prune the fruit trees.
Youtube is often our research library, with our favourite channels saved so we can find them and refer back to them often. We use email and messenger as our main means of communication. You go to your phone or computer for that information. You even use your phone for your shopping list.
So when the internet isn't there, how do we do this?
Simple! We go old school. That simply means we use actual recipe books, or gardening books or go to our address book to find the address of a friend so we can send a letter.
Now if you are like most people in 2021, you don't have a lot of your important information actually written down in a hard copy you can refer to.
Take a few minutes once a week or so to think about the information you refer to often and get a hard copy of it. That favourite recipe - Cream Cheese Patties or Lunchbox Cookies are readily available online, but write them into your recipe book or print them and pop them into a binder.
As you watch your favourite YouTube channels, take notes. Write them down, keep them in a folder or notebook so you can refer to them without relying on the internet.
Keep an old fashioned address book. If you're worried about having to update it, write in pencil so you can just use an eraser to wipe out the old info and write in the new.
Keep a hard copy of important information like bank details, bill accounts, insurance information, medical history and information.
Keep it all together in a binder so it's easy to find and use and update.
Build a library of books.
Health books - hydrotherapy, natural remedies, one I can recommend is Back to Eden by Jethro Kloss. Now this is a very old book, it has been in my library for over 40 years, I was a teenager when I bought it. I also have the kindle version. If you can get a hard copy, do. It is full of recipes and ways to use the herbs, grasses, flowers, bark of the trees around us to keep us healthy.
Gather gardening books and books on agriculture. Books that will help you identify plants, trees, berries, flowers.
Get skillset books. Gardening, cooking, sewing, knitting, first aid, mechanical maintenance, canning and preserving, natural remedies, building, survival skills.
Add all these books to your library. You don't need to do it all at once. Look for them in op shops and secondhand bookshops. They are there. So many buy them, all gung ho, and then apathy or laziness takes over and they can't be bothered so they ditch those oh so very valuable resources.
We need books, hard copies, because the internet won't be available.
We are living in a virtual world. We all use the internet every day - you're using it right now to read this article!
If you think you aren't reliant on it, try going one weekend - just 48 hours - without it. No YouTube, Netflix, emails, facebook. No Google. Stay offline for 48 hours and every time you go to use it, note it down.
You'll be surprised at just how reliant you are on the internet.
Don't think the internet can't disappear; it can, it will, it has.
Build your library of resources so you are prepared when it does happen.
Be smart, be a preparer and be prepared.
videos
printable sheets
Bill Paying System
Card Log
Freezer Inventory
Freezer Label Template
Fridge Inventory
Freezer Inventory
Pantry Inventory
Stockpile Inventory
Card Log
Freezer Inventory
Freezer Label Template
Fridge Inventory
Freezer Inventory
Pantry Inventory
Stockpile Inventory
tip sheets
4 Easy Ways to Build Your Emergency Fund
4 Easy Ways to Inventory your Possessions for Insurance
6 Tips for a Frugal and Efficient Fireplace
Basic Camping Checklist
How to Decide Which Debt to Pay Off First
The Cupboard Is Bare Grocery List
4 Easy Ways to Inventory your Possessions for Insurance
6 Tips for a Frugal and Efficient Fireplace
Basic Camping Checklist
How to Decide Which Debt to Pay Off First
The Cupboard Is Bare Grocery List
Books I Recommend
All New Square Foot Gardening by Mel Bartholmew
Back to Eden by Jethro Kloss
Grow Great Grub by Gayla Trail
Homesteading in the 21st Century by George Nash & Jane Waterman
Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon
Practical Self-Sufficiency by Dick & James Strawbridge
Self-Sufficiency by Abigail R. Gehring
The New Complete Book of Self-Sufficiency by John Seymour
The Quarter Acre Farm by Spring Warren
Urban Homesteading by Rachel Kaplan with Ruby Blume
Back to Eden by Jethro Kloss
Grow Great Grub by Gayla Trail
Homesteading in the 21st Century by George Nash & Jane Waterman
Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon
Practical Self-Sufficiency by Dick & James Strawbridge
Self-Sufficiency by Abigail R. Gehring
The New Complete Book of Self-Sufficiency by John Seymour
The Quarter Acre Farm by Spring Warren
Urban Homesteading by Rachel Kaplan with Ruby Blume
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