Preparedness Challenge #7

Each week, those participating in the Preparedness Challenge hope to add at least one thing to our pantry or homestead that will help our families be prepared for some of the "what ifs" in life. While we can't do it all, forward progress is always better than no progress, and hopefully we'll gain momentum over time. Would you like to join us?


This week for the Preparedness Challenge, I purchased two replacement filters for my Big Berkey water purifying system. This product is great for every day, but if the water is ever cut off for some reason, I can filter rain water off the roof (if we were to get any!), lake water, or even water from a mud puddle and make it safe to drink! Often in a crisis, such as a hurricane, water supplies become contaminated and outbreaks of disease occur as a second wave after the initial crisis. This is exactly what they're facing in Haiti right now. You can only store so much water, so a purifier that really works should be a high priority for anyone seeking to be prepared. 

I also purchased a couple of books to help us on our homestead both now and in the event of a crisis. The first is Root Cellaring: Natural Cold Storage of Fruits and Vegetables by Make and Nancy Bubel. I shared this book with a friend who is a mason who read through it and then we talked about where my family could build a root cellar and how. The only thing holding us up is money for the supplies. Eventually we'll get to this project and knowing in advance our plan will help us when it's time to put it into action. 

The second book, Gardening When It Counts by Steve Solomon, who was the founder of Territorial Seed Company, wrote this book specifically for growing high nutrient vegetables with little water on a very small budget and during hard times. I had picked up this book at the library about a year ago, but was put off with his introduction. Thanks to Gina at Home Joys, she encouraged readers to plow on through and find the gems in the book. I'm only about 30 pages into the book and I'm already glad I did! Rather than expound on it now, I hope to write a review of it when I'm done, but let me just say that he makes some excellent points and he has a lot of experience to go with it!


The potatoes are going in the ground today (at least some of them) and a friend helped us do a little more investigating into the natural springs on our property. Finally, I did a bit more sleuthing around on my property for more native plants. I can't say I found anything great, but there is tons of that nettle everywhere! Silly me, I had capri pants on when I went up the mountain and my leg is telling me about the nettle as I write since there was a small gap between my boot and the pants. Just enough space for the nettle to get me! Where is the plantain? I really would like to have a good crop of this on my property, but I'm not finding it anywhere! Perhaps it's to arid and dry here. Apparently you can buy the seeds and plant it, so I'll probably have to do that soon. Seems like I need it often!


Please share how you Prepared this week by leaving a comment below or write a blog post, add the Preparedness Challenge Picture with a link to Homestead Revival™, and then come back here and add your post to the Linky. Be sure to click your title and copy the URL that will link directly to the appropriate post on your blog so friends can find it easily.


Don't feel like you have to do a bunch of things; just one is great! The goal here isn't to out do each other, but rather to DO SOMETHING!