It’s Never Too Late to Be Prepared For Survival Today
It’s never too late to be prepared for survival today, you just need to get started a little at a time. Sometimes it may seem overwhelming to be prepared for survival, I get it. But I also know life can bring a curveball, so to speak, when we least expect it.
I realize we give gifts to our family and friends occasionally throughout the year, but this year maybe you can throw in just one gift that can help a family survive a disaster, or maybe a job loss, a loss of a loved one, or an unforeseen emergency. We all know someone who can use a little help to be prepared for an unforeseen emergency.
Today, I want to suggest you look at giving gifts that will help a neighbor or family member be prepared for survival. It can be as little as a case of bottled water, a case of beans, or a bag of rice (white rice lasts longer). Yes, brown rice is healthier, but only has a shelf life of about six months.
Here’s the deal, you can also give a flashlight, a butane stove with extra fuel, or most anything you think the family can best use to be prepared. Butane stove and Butane Fuel.
Waterbricks make great gifts, a Life Straw so they can filter water or other items that help them feel confident their water needs will be met. My favorite Water Preserver makes it so I only have to rotate the water in my water containers every five years. If you use bleach, you will need to rotate them every six months. You can order the Water Preserver online, saving you a trip to your emergency prep store.
I can still remember when I was newly married and we were putting Mark through college and money was tight. We had one daughter at the time and my parents came to visit. My mom and dad came up to the front door with groceries, baby food, and some gallons of milk. Tears streamed down my face because I was so grateful they surprised me with food, yes food. We didn’t need stuff, we needed food and somehow they knew it.
I knew someday I would pay it forward and I did and I still try to do so when I see others in need. I know what it’s like to sacrifice everything to get an education to become self-reliant. I learned to cook from scratch and rub a penny to make a nickel, or so it seemed. LOL!
Thank goodness I knew how to make bread and cook from scratch. You can make a lot of meals if you know how to make bread, biscuits, crackers, and tortillas. We bought a lot of rice and beans during those years and we still do today. We grew a garden. I preserved everything I could get my hands on for FREE, like from a neighbor’s apricot tree.
I learned to pressure can and water bath foods safely. I dehydrated everything possible. Our kids still talk about the dried fruit we’d eat for treats after school. I taught my daughters the gift of work, and it has really paid off as shown by their strong work ethic over the years, both as a parent, employee, and self-employed business owner.
Prepare For Survival Today
My suggestion today would be if you don’t have the money to give water or water containers, food, flashlights, etc. to friends and family members, please teach them skills to be prepared for survival today.
Teach Classes To Bake Or Cook
Please write a note that your gift will be to teach them how to make bread, for instance. If you can, volunteer to teach classes on how to cook from scratch. It seems it’s becoming a lost art.
Teach Classes on Sewing
What a great gift to give to someone who is interested in sewing. Everyone needs to know how to mend clothes, right? I used to make almost all the clothes for my girls when they were young. We had fun going to the store to pick out the fabric THEY wanted to wear. It took some creativity to make the chosen fabric fit the intended use, but they took pride in telling friends they chose the material and their mom made the outfit.
Canning Classes
Give a gift certificate to someone who wants to learn the safe way to can food, pressure can food or dehydrate food. Please do not pay for classes online unless it’s approved by the USDA. Food has changed and therefore canning guidelines have changed. If you have a university extension service in your area, that’s a perfect way for someone to get their Master Canning Preserving Certificate.
I think Mark and I paid like $100.00 each for the 12-week course. It was fabulous and I learned the newer safer guidelines. I didn’t realize that some vegetables, like tomatoes, have a different chemical makeup now, requiring us to add lemon juice to provide the necessary acidic content to make the canning process work as desired.
Teach Classes On Cooking Outdoors
It would be a fabulous gift to give a Dutch Oven and then teach the recipient how to use it. Please teach them how to start a fire and then cook a meal. This is another great gift idea, a Fire Starter. How to use a Dutch Oven by Linda
Learn To Make Quilts
If you know how to quilt, please teach others to sew fabric pieces together, add the batting, and tie the quilts with yarn, or have it machine quilted or quilt it by hand. It’s easy to bind a quilt, pass this skill on to the next generation. I sew my bindings on, but some quilters will only hand-sew their bindings. I have 17 grandchildren, my quilts need to be rugged.
My point today is maybe we give items like water storage or food storage for presents, but also we can teach skills to our friends and family so they will be prepared for survival today, not next year, today. Thanks again for being prepared for the unexpected. May God Bless the world.
I must say for those without extra funds that you can get great deals on outdoor gear if you just keep watching out for sales, reductions and clearances. I have two sporting goods stores in my area and Walmart. One of the stores tends to be pricey and I rarely shop there. Walmart has fair deals and frequent reductions, but the other store is always marking things down. So the rule is to be patient and look. Many stores have clearance sections and marked down items just sitting for the taking.
I have purchased all kinds of gear. I love knives and flashlights, and I rarely pay regular price. I picked up a fat little purple water bottle and it was the last one and I paid $5.00 I almost just left it. Glad I didn’t.
I even found those “GoBites” (Fork and spoon set) at Office Max in their clearance area. I would have NEVER thought I’d find them locally much less at an office supply store. They were $2 versus the usual $6-$7 they sell for. This kind of patient shopping (Frequent looking) has allowed me to have a survival kit and enough gear if the power goes out. I often think of telling family and friends about my finds and buying extra items for them, but sadly none of them care about prepping. At least someone will benefit, but what great gifts these items could be particularly when people find themselves in an emergency.
Hi, Frank, what a great comment as always! I would never have thought about an office supply store, great tip! This comment today is especially good for my readers looking for deals throughout the year to give as gifts to those family members who would love to have some emergency items when they find themselves without power, etc. Happy Holidays Frank, Linda