Around 3 years ago here in New England we had a pretty serious winter ice storm that knocked my power out for around a week and in many close-by areas they were without power for 2 weeks.

From that experience I realized I was woefully unprepared for winter.

Sure, I had plenty of food and water storage, and I had a wealth of wilderness survival experience to draw on if I needed. I would simply have to make a winter shelter for my wife and 2 year old…yeah right.

My wife packed up the kid and went to her mother’s.

I on the other hand, decided to “man it” at home to ensure that the house was taken care of (drain pipes, clear fallen limbs and debris etc).

At night I would sleep in my sleeping bag and during the day I’d start a fire in my fireplace (which is inadequate for warming up an entire house).

Eventually I had to pack it up and head to my Dad’s where he had the internet so I could get some work done (as well as a warm shower).

Experience breeds wisdom

What did I learn from that? Well, it was time for some new preps.

Sure, if needed we could have survived. I could have blocked off the room where the fireplace is, set up any number of improvised mattress shelters (which are killer indoor shelters btw), and with plenty of food and water and a place to cook and heat it we would have been fine.

But, it’s not just about surviving, but thriving in tough times remember? (see tag-line)

Now fast-forward three years to the present day and we get hit with a good-sized winter storm (we got 15 inches where I live) that knocks out our power again.

Did that past experience breed some present-day wisdom? Absolutely. Here are some new preps that made all the difference (and kept my wife and kids at home with me  ):

5 essential pieces of gear that got us comfortably through a winter power outage

Generator (Energy)

For energy production I now have a generator.

The one I ended up buying is a Yamaha EF2000is. I actually had it custom built by www.propane-generators.com to allow it to run off of 3 different types of fuels: Propane, Gasoline, and Natural Gas.

This is perfect since I have around five 25lb propane bottles that will get me through at least 1 1/2 weeks of power loss and I plan on purchasing more.

The generator will run my fridge, tv, some lights and my pellet stove without issue — all my family needs for a comfortable time through the coldest of nights.

And given that it is an inverter-type generator it will power my computer without harming any sensitive electrical components (it produces a pure sine wave much like the grid’s electricity).

If I needed more power, it also has the ability to be run in parallel with another matching EF2000is for 3600 running watts (4000 max) of power. Plenty enough for most any application.

One of the other things that really attracted me to it, is how quiet it is. With a range of 51 – 60 dB of sound (depending on load) it’s one of the quietest generators on the market (comparible to Honda’s EU2000i) — an ideal feature during a SHTF situation if discreetness were to become a priority.

Oil Lamps (Lighting)

My favorite types of lighting during a power outage are oil lamps. These can be found in most of your big-name hardware stores for under $10.

Not only do they burn paraffin oil (what is typically sold with it) but it will burn any of your cooking oils you may have as well (olive, vegetable, etc). They are bright, effective and the oil will last a long time.

In a pinch, remember that you can easily make your own homemade lamps from everyday objects.

Pellet Stove & Big Buddy Heater (Heating)

For heating, I primarily use my pellet stove. It doesn’t draw much power (starting watts is 400 running is just around 200) so it’s perfect in conjunction with a generator.

At night, when we’re all tucked away upstairs, I use the Big Buddy Heater. This also runs on propane and on medium it kicks out enough heat to warm up my upstairs without an issue.

If long-term heating were required I do have a wood-burning stove given to me by a good friend of mine. However, I don’t have the proper piping at this time to vent it through my chimney – so that is still on the list to get done.

Rocket Stove (Cooking)

For cooking I primarily use my rocket stoves (see the reviews for the Stovetec and EcoZoom here).

Since I have a fireplace, it allows me to easily cook inside. Here’s a pic of me cooking up some breakfast during the power outage (btw cast-iron pans are perfect for rocketstoves):

For fuel, while I do have stored/seasoned wood, there is so much of it on my property in the form of dead trees and branches that it would take a lifetime to deplete it since the rocket stoves are so efficient.

As another redundancy, I also have a propane camp stove, however I like to save the propane for heat and energy production since there is so much wood for cooking.

Conclusion

So if you’re not yet prepared for a power outage, where do you start?

Since most grid-down situations are usually resolved in under 2 weeks, I would first start by getting yourself prepared for at least a 2-week power outage. You’ll want to cover each of the four areas that our grid provides: energy, heating, lighting, and cooking (if cooling is a major worry instead of cold winters, just replace heating for cooling).

Once your 2-weeks are secure, start considering what you’d do in longer-term power outages. As you do so, keep in mind what would be most beneficial for your location/environment and living area.

Also consider what natural resources you may have available since these will be what will carry you through long-term emergencies.

For example, you may be in an area that gets a lot of sun or perhaps wind. If that’s the case solar or wind power might be an option for you.

Or if you, like me, have lots of wood or bio-waste then gassification is a definite consideration. Or any combination of those may be good for you.

So what type of setups do you guys have? Any particular preparations you have that get you through power outages? I’d love to hear from your experiences so we can all benefit, so please comment.

I got this idea straight from the HeatStick.com site, where instead of ordering one of their “Kandle Heeters” I decided to make my own and share with you guys how you can too (it cost me about 15 bucks to make compared to 30 dollars (plus shipping) if you were to buy one).

How it Works

The basic purpose of this heater is to capture the heat given off of a candle flame and to concentrate it into a steel and ceramic radiator assembly. After some time, the ceramic surface will act as a thermal mass and begin to radiate the captured thermal energy into your room or office. Here’s how heatstick.com describes it (image and description c/o heatstick.com):

Heat rising from a burning candle (or electric lamp) is first trapped in the Steel Inner Core and surrounding Ceramic Inner Module. The Inner Cores get very hot and radiate heat to the Ceramic Middle Core. This Entire Inner Region gets VERY VERY HOT!! Heat synergistically builds up and “boils out” of the Ceramic Inner Core into the Ceramic Middle Core. The Middle Core heats up and begins to Radiate Heat. Heated air “boils out” into the Ceramic Outer Core. The Large Surface Area of the Outer Core begins receiving Heat. The inner wall surfaces become very HOT! Heat travels through the wall to the Outer Surface. The Outer Surface gets VERY WARM to HOT and gently begins to Radiate Heat into your home or office.

Putting it all Together

The process for putting together the candle heater is very simple:

What You Need

• one 4″ ceramic (not glazed) pot
• one 2″ ceramic (not glazed) pot
• one 1 1/2″ ceramic (not glazed) pot
• two 1 1/2″ x 1/4″ washers
• three 1 1/4″ x 1/4″ washers
• three 1″ x 1/4″ washers
• eight 3/4″ x 1/4″ washers
• seven 1/4″ nuts
• one 3″ x 1/4″ bolt

Assembly Instructions

I think that the easiest way for you to learn how to put one of these heaters together is to follow the cutout image (to the left) I used from the heatstick.com site:

Just place the washers and nuts in the right combination as the image and you’ll be good to go. Looking inside, it should look something like this:

Making the Stand

	I found the simplest stand to make is to purchase three 4″ corner braces.
	Then just put the three braces together with the middle brace facing the opposite direction and bend the outside two just enough to support the heater.

Test Results

I decided to test out the heater with the bacon-grease candle I had made (check out Homemade Lamps from Everyday Objects to learn how to make your own). Since the homemade candle jar was a bit bigger than the 4.5″ stand I made, I added 6″ corner brace extensions to support the larger candle.

After burning the heater for around 6 hours it seemed to be putting out only a small amount of heat (a decent amount of heat was pouring out from underneath though). However, since the weather has been warmer around here I wasn’t able to give this little heater a fair shake (and besides, how much heat output are you really expecting from a candle anyways?).

Despite the less-than-optimal testing conditions, still, in no way would it heat up your home (or even a normal size room for that matter), but in an enclosed area like your car I could see it having some benefit. Again I haven’t been able to truly test it so this is only conjecture.

Even though the heater doesn’t seem all that effective, making this contraption was far from a waste of time. I learned some important principles as well as came up with other ideas of how to convert a flame source to radiant heating (just think of a larger version of this heater combined with the rocket stove I reviewed and you’ll get what I mean).

Being someone who doesn’t like to give survival advice without first having tested it myself, I wanted to make sure to try out the stove as soon as I could and report back to you guys. This spawned another article called Testing out the Survival Stove.

In that article, I proved the effectiveness of the stove. It took a car from 16 degrees Fahrenheit to around 60 degrees in 20 minutes. However, toward the end of the 20 min test, I began feeling a headache and was concerned that it may be due to carbon monoxide poisoning. Unfortunately I didn’t have a carbon monoxide tester with me to be certain. Which brings me to this article…

This evening I took the stove out to the car again along with a carbon monoxide tester and instead of having two door windows open a crack, I only opened one. I also extended the test period from 20 minutes to a full half hour. My results?

No carbon monoxide alarms.

Also, I didn’t have a headache this time despite having less air circulation on top of being in the car longer. And the headaches I got last time — a fluke? I don’t know.

However, all in all I’m confident in saying that I feel the stove is indeed safe as an emergency car heater if you were ever stranded somewhere. Again, just be sure to open the window about an inch — preferably the window closest to the stove.

Despite these tests, I recommend packing in your car a carbon-monoxide tester along with your survival stove — just in case. I also would suggest that every-so-often you breath in some fresh air (by temporarily opening the driver-side window a crack and taking a few breaths) while operating the stove. There may be no dangerous levels of carbon monoxide, but there could be potentially harmful vapors being emitted by the burning alcohol. Just my 2 cents.

You can never be too safe!

I wanted to test how long it would take for the car to heat up to a comfortable temperature in below freezing temperatures.

I also was curious as to the quality of the air I would be breathing and whether it would have any adverse effects on me. Read more to find out the results…

Based on this chart below it took about 20 min to take it from 16 degrees Fahrenheit to about 60 degrees. It probably could have heated up even hotter but I stopped at the 20 min mark due to a headache I was feeling (I’ll explain below).

As a side note, the reason for the quick increase in temperature from the onset seemed to have been due to two factors: One, I had the stove on full output (uncovered) during the first 10 min which I then covered up three-quarters of the way for the last 10 min. And two, I cracked two windows open after the ten minute mark due to the poor quality of the air I was breathing.

Carbon Monoxide Poisoning?

After the 10-minute mark I began feeling a small headache and the air just didn’t “feel” right. It seemed worse if I sat upright and was better the lower I sat/reclined. I wonder if I was feeling the onset of carbon-monoxide poisoning or if it was other fumes coming from the burnt alcohol?

I’m going to have to bring my carbon-monoxide alarm with me in the car during a future test to see if that is what was going on. If that is the case, then it’s absolutely crucial that you keep a good crack open in your car window. I’ll have to post on my results soon.

Overall Thoughts

All in all the stove works quite well. In about 20 minutes I was sitting in a comfortable 60 degree car. However, like I mentioned earlier, I had to crack two of my windows open (about an inch open on each window) just to feel that the air was clean.

This ended up bringing in more cold air, which naturally sent all the cold air to the bottom of the car and the warm air above the seats — so I felt warm on top and cold on the bottom. Keeping my feet propped up on the dashboard helped to keep me warm for the most part though.

Most of all I’m pretty concerned about the levels of carbon monoxide. Or was it just a fluke that I was getting a headache? I think once I test it again with the CO alarm I’ll have my answer. Stay posted…

When you look at your average pine tree, rarely does one think that it has the ability to sustain you in a survival situation if the need ever arose. It’s sharp needles and gnarly bark give off the impression that it’s a less-than-friendly flora. On the contrary, pine provides some of the most readily available food sources in nature.

Pine Nuts

All pines contain edible seeds in the late season cones. The only issue is the quality and size of those seeds are highly dependent upon the species of pine.

As someone who lives in the Northeast, species of pine available here do not offer up seeds big enough to warrant the effort required in gathering and processing them. However, if you live in the Great Basin areas where Pinyon pine grows, you have an excellent source of food in the fall time.

Gathering and Processing Pine Nuts

The best time to gather pine nuts is in September and October. Look for the round open cones. Simply gather the cones, remove the seeds and shell before eating raw or roasting.

Notice the seeds w/in the cones

Pine Needle Tea

The needles of all pine make an excellent mild tea (not at all pitchy tasting as you’d expect) that is loaded with Vitamin C.

To make the tea, simply gather a good handful of fresh green pine needles. With a knife or sharp stone, dice the needles as fine as possible. Next, take these needles and put them directly into a cup of boiling water, letting it boil for a minute or two. The water should turn a light yellow color. Add some honey, drink and enjoy!

Male Pine Cone Flour

In the spring time, the pollen from the small male pine cones (as pictured below) can easily be shaken from the cone into a container and used as a stew thickener, or flour substitute that is a great source of protein.

Edible Pine Bark

You can eat bark? Absolutely! When first learning about wild edibles this comes as the biggest surprise to most people. But when I make it for them at home they’re actually amazed at how good it actually tastes.

Keep this in mind. When you cut off the bark of any tree be sure never to completely girdle the tree or you will kill it. The best option is to cut a small strip at most 1/10th the circumference of the tree. This will allow the tree to easily heal itself. Pine should be plentiful, so a small strip from each tree is more than sufficient to make a survival meal.

Choosing your tree

The first thing you’ll want to do is to choose a large, mature pine tree since it provides the most inner bark without harming the tree. If you have white pine in your area, consider yourself lucky since it’s one of the biggest and tastiest of all the pines.

Collecting out inner bark

With a heavy duty knife, drive the tip of the knife through the outer bark with a strong stick (this is where a good survival knife comes in handy).

Then begin to pound the back of the blade with a strong stick to drive the edge of the knife down the bark. Continue doing this until you’ve made a decent size rectangle.

Peel away the outer bark making sure to peel off the tender cambium layer (the inner bark) that comes with it.

Continue peeling the larger sections of the inner bark.

With a knife or other sharp object, scrape away the remaining inner bark stuck to the tree (this is the most tender and sweetest part of the inner bark).

Cooking the inner bark

There are three ways to eat the inner bark:

1. Boiling
2. Frying
3. Drying and Pounding into Flour

I’ll be covering the first two.

Boiling

I find this the least palatable of all the options. Just peel the inner bark collected from the last step into thin pieces and boil them. The end result is a softer, less chewy version of the raw inner bark. Only slightly better than peeling it off the tree and stuffing it in your mouth.

Frying

This is by far the best tasting way to prepare pine bark (even my wife likes it ). Like in the boiling step, peel the the inner bark into thin strips and simply fry them in some butter or oil until medium brown and crispy. Add a little bit of salt and it tastes like potato chips.

With the fall equinox coming in a few days (September 22) I know it’s time to prepare my home for the coming winter. For those who aren’t aware of it, an equinox — which only occurs twice per year — is the time of the year when the day and night are split equally. The fall equinox lets us know that from now on the nights will be getting longer and the days shorter. It is a prelude to winter and the perfect time to start preparing your home for that coming season.

In this article, you will learn what steps you’ll need to take to prepare your home for winter. These steps are broken up into what I call the 5 priorities of survival: Personal Security, Shelter, Water, Fire, Food.

Personal Security

There are some unique dangers that one has to be aware of in the winter time. Here is a list of items that you should prepare for:

• Carbon Monoxide Detectors: Since the temperature is beginning to drop, many households are beginning to use their heating stoves (pellet or wood) again. These stoves have the potential to release deadly carbon monoxide gas. Be sure to get a detector if you don’t already have one and double check the batteries if you do.
• Smoke Detectors: Similar to carbon monoxide poisoning, house fires aren’t uncommon in the winter time. Be sure your detector is functioning and has new batteries.
• Remove dead branches and trees away from your house: Anyone who has lived through an ice storm or a winter blizzard knows the danger that nearby dead (and sometimes living) trees and branches pose for your home and yourself. Take a look around your home and seek out any potential problem trees and branches. Remove these (or have them removed by a professional).
• Prepare an emergency evacuation kit: If you house caught on fire and you had to bug-out quickly, you’ll want to make sure that you have an emergency evacuation kit ready to go in a moments notice. This is a bit different than the 72-hour kit in that it contains social security cards, medical records, birth certificates, and other important documents.
• Some means of communication: This could include a battery-powered or hand-crank radio (for listening to local emergency instructions). Have extra batteries if needed.
• First-Aid kit: This is pretty self explanatory

Shelter

Included here is a list of specific steps related to your shelter (home) that should be taken care of before the winter hits.

• Seal up your home: This includes caulking and shrink-wrapping the windows, installing storm windows, weather stripping the doors, closing the flue or chimney etc. To test whether your windows/doors need additional sealing, on a windy day light a candle and place it near the door or window. When the wind picks up, if the flame flickers then it needs to be sealed up.
• Add insulation where needed: An uninsulated attic is one of the primary places that heat is lost through the home (in actuality it gets trapped there). You should add at least R-30 grade insulation. Other areas include the sill boxes, basement walls and ceiling joists, and other floors and walls where applicable.
• Gather and prepare the needed tools and equipment: These are the tools and equipment needed to maintain your home during the winter. This includes snow shovels, rock salt and sand, as well as tuning up your snow blower and so on.

Water

• Insulate your pipes: You’ll want to insulate any pipes that are exposed to freezing cold. Be aware that pipes don’t necessarily have to be directly outside to freeze. If they are in an area of the home which is not heated (basement, spare room etc) they could potentially freeze on a really cold night. Insulating your pipes will prevent freezing which can lead to water not being available or the pipes bursting and flooding your home.
• Drain and shut off outdoor water faucets: Similar to the previous step, frozen faucets can damage valves and burst connecting pipes. Draining them will prevent this.
• Stored Water: Frozen pipes and power outages (stopping well-water pumps from working) are commonplace in the winter. Store up 2 weeks of water (1-gallon per person per day minimum). This is also part of the Food Storage Basics and should be done anyways.
• Water purification kit: If you refuse to store water, at least have a purification kit to purify melted snow or ice. Just fill up a large pot with snow or ice and bring it inside to melt in a heated home (assuming you followed the ‘fire’ steps below) or over an emergency cooking stove and purify it with your kit. Check out my article on water procurement and purification methods.

Fire

The ‘fire’ in this case relates to cooking, heating, and lighting. Here’s a list of key ‘fire’ components of your home that should be included in your preparations:

• Have your heating system checked and maintained: This includes furnace inspections, thoroughly cleaning out your pellet stove, chimney or flue inspections (if they are used in heating your home) and so on.
• Have a backup heating plan: If you were to lose power or the gas shut off would you still be able to heat your home? Be sure to have some back-up option to heat your home in the event that does happen. The best option would be a wood-burning stove with a few cords of wood. In close second and often overlooked are kerosene heaters. They rival the output of a pellet stove and are tons cheaper. Be aware of the venting requirements before you run this in your home.

  Another backup option is a generator (don’t run it inside) with some stored fuel to provide electricity for pellet stoves, space heaters and other electric powered heat sources. A fireplace (with a proper reflector to improve the heat output) is also acceptable. In a pinch you could make an emergency alcohol stove and use it huddled up in a small room (just be sure a window is opened about an inch). Although the risk of carbon monoxide poisoning is minimal, as a precaution I would take a carbon monoxide detector in the room with you.

• Have a backup cooking plan: This includes small Ezbet stoves, emergency stoves, camping stoves etc. With some of these stoves, it’s a good idea to cook outdoors.
• Have a backup lighting plan: This includes making sure that your flashlights are located in an area that’s easy to access (with plenty of batteries) in the event of a blackout. Other more long-term means of lighting include candles and oil lanterns.

Food

With winter storms, blackouts and road closures common in the winter time, getting to the store to buy food is not always possible. Here’s a list of preparations you can make to ensure that food is not an issue.

• Food Storage: Having some extra food on hand is always beneficial. If you’ve followed my advice on building up a 3-month supply, then food shortages/availability during a severe storm will not be an issue. At the least you should have enough to last you 2-weeks.
• Non-Cook items: Since long-term cooking could be an issue if you haven’t prepared right, be sure to have plenty of foods that do not require them being cooked (canned goods, dehydrated/freeze-dried foods etc). Don’t forget the non-electric can opener!
• Perscription drugs and other medicine: Although not exactly food, if you are dependent upon certain medicines, you should have some extra on hand.