Posts by Marie Hawthorne
Prepper Lessons From the Recent Phone Outages
Tens of thousands of mobile phone customers lost service Thursday morning. The phone outage affected primarily customers in the eastern half of the country, including Houston, Dallas, Atlanta, San Antonio, Indianapolis, and Louisville, though customers in San Francisco had problems dialing 911 in roughly the same timeframe. Some news stations speculated that solar flares caused…
Read MoreDIY Food Supply: Grow Your Own Sprouts
I love fresh homegrown veggies but can’t garden year-round in my climate. My property is a mixture of mud and ice right now, which means no fresh green things unless I get them from the store. I’d love to build a greenhouse someday, but that won’t be in the budget any time soon. Luckily, I’ve…
Read MoreSalmonella: What You Need To Know
Salmonella outbreaks keep making the news. The Center for Disease Control (CDC) recently announced recalls for popular charcuterie boards sold at Costco and Sam’s Club stores. If you have recently begun producing your own food, you may be wondering how serious salmonella is and how likely you are to become sick from homegrown and home-processed…
Read MorePoultry Primer: Adding Backyard Chickens to Your Preps
If you are looking for a way to have a more reliable egg supply, keeping backyard chickens might be right for your family. There are a lot of other great reasons to consider adding backyard chickens to your property, as well. Baby chicks are adorable, and the personalities of hens in a backyard flock provide…
Read MoreHomemade Bone Broth: Here’s How To Make It
Do you want to assemble a pantry? Are you trying to determine which healthy foods require little preparation to enjoy? If so, consider adding jars of homemade bone broth. Having jars of broth on hand can liven up freeze-dried foods and turn dried snacks into meals. If you’ve never made broth from scratch before, read…
Read More21 Prepper Uses for Baking Soda
December 30 is National Bicarbonate of Soda Day, and what better way to enjoy the day than by learning about all the uses for baking soda, an essential housekeeping and preparedness item? Baking soda (NaCO3) is also known as sodium bicarbonate, and there are a few different manufacturing methods. The Leblanc process was the first…
Read MorePrepper Holiday Gifts That Won’t Break The Bank
The combination of inflation and increased interest rates is hitting average consumers hard, and it showed this past Black Friday. Many people are budgeting more tightly; others rely more on credit cards and buy-now-pay-later apps to make it through the holiday season. Credit cards should be saved for true emergencies. Most financial planners strongly recommend…
Read MorePrepper Skills: Soapmaking 101
Shrinkflation has hit everything, including some of my favorite cleaning supplies. I don’t have a dishwasher, so when the brand of dish soap I’ve been using my entire adult life suddenly wasn’t getting dishes as clean, my children and I noticed right away. Having to squirt one and a half times as much soap into…
Read MoreWinter Garden Preps
Gardening season is winding down for most of us. As the nights become colder, you might be wondering when it’s time to pull up what. I began my gardening journey years ago with the mentality that freezes meant the end of the season, but in reality, the end is much more gradual. These days, I…
Read MorePrepping with Pumpkins
Pumpkins. They’re the symbol of Halloween, Thanksgiving, and all things fall-related. And even in my cold, dry part of the country, they’re all over the place because they’re fairly easy to grow. DIY Pumpkin Puree Oftentimes, people grab canned pumpkin from the store because they’re not sure how to turn their cute fall decoration into…
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