The concept of family preparedness can mean different things to different people. For starters, what are you preparing for? In terms of a time frame, that is.
Will the family need to stick together under completely off-the-grid conditions for a week? Or maybe you need to prepare for an entire month without the daily necessities that some in your family may quickly come to see as luxuries.
One aspect of family preparedness that you ignore only at your own risk is those little things you take so much for granted that you have never thought about life without easy access to them. Like how to cure a headache when a tornado ripped through every pharmacy and grocery store a few hours ago. Or how to cure your son’s toothache when the closest dentist may as well be practicing on the moon?
Prepping Matters
This is why it’s called prepping. Those who prepare comprehensively enough for any reasonable expectation of disaster will thrive, while those who don’t may be lucky enough to survive merely. Here are a few things you can use to prepare that you may not have thought of, which can be pretty darn useful!
Oatmeal: It is very likely a truism of family preparedness that you can never have too much oatmeal on hand. For one thing, oatmeal is a terrific food item because it’s easy to make. For another, oatmeal can make your stomach feel very full on a relatively small amount. And finally, oatmeal deserves consideration as a prepping necessity because you can let it simmer in water over a heat source just long enough to become a soothing paste for dry, cracked skin. Also works nicely to soothe insect bites and bee stings.
Cork:Family preparedness may not include storing bottles of wine, but it should not preclude storing the corks. Periods when your preparedness will be put to the test are, by definition, highly stressful and create high levels of tension. The minute the tension starts to get to a family member’s head, pop a cork between their teeth and have them lie down while very gently chewing on it. After about 5 or 10 minutes, the threat of a full-blown headache is very likely to disappear.
Oil of Cloves: Oil of cloves has such a long history of use in treating toothaches that any serious prepper who doesn’t have a small bottle in their first aid kit must surely have overlooked it. It only takes a tiny amount of clove oil applied to the affected tooth to bring about significant relief in a very short time. Having said that, it must also be stated that using more oil than is needed can result in unintended effects ranging from nausea to diarrhea and from a sore throat to seizures. Before adding oil of cloves to your family preparedness list, first, make sure no one in the family has a severe allergy to cloves.
Apple Cider Vinegar: For symptoms from indigestion, gas, or bloating (treat acid reflux by taking one to two teaspoons daily), sore throat (mix 1/4 cup with warm water and gargle every hour), or sunburn (dilute it in water and pat on the irritated skin), cider vinegar should most definitely be a standard part of your prep pack. As a bonus, cider vinegar is an incredibly effective natural deodorant that can make such restricted confinement a bit more pleasant-smelling. Not only will cider vinegar help remove body odor without affecting the body’s natural detoxification process, but once it dries, the strong vinegar scent disappears.
All the little irritants that become enormous problems under survivalist conditions need to become standard parts of your family preparedness process. Maybe you can withstand the pain of a headache, a toothache, or the irritation of dry skin. But can your children? Or your spouse? Or your parents? Or, indeed, anyone else you have rolled into your family in the larger sense of the word?
Check out my Preparedness Archives for more prepping tips — I’ve been getting a lot of positive feedback from folks on how they have used my posts to get started preparing for whatever lies ahead. Then, share these posts so that others you know and care about can also benefit from the information.
