Favorite books on self-sufficiency

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ason123
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Favorite books on self-sufficiency

Post by ason123 »

Hello all! Wanted to get your opinions on recommended reading about self-sufficiency and prepping. What books are worth buying?

I do have on my bookshelf for general prepping ideas (and so far I really like these):
Note: Edited to add more books and correct author I got wrong previously.

1) AVOW preparedness manual
2) The Prepper's Blueprint - by Tess Pennington
3) Dare to Prepare - by Holly Deyo
4) The Prepper's Water Survival Guide - by Daisy Luther
5) Herbal Home Health Care - by Dr. John R. Christopher
6) The Provident Prepper - by Jones & Jones
7) The Pantry Primer - by Daisy Luther
8) The Prepper's Canning Guide - by Daisy Luther
9) The Prepper's Cookbook - by Tess Pennington

I also enjoy Caleb Warnock books because they have great gardening, cooking, and other self-sufficient ideas for beginners. (a great title to start with is "Forgotten Skills of Self-Sufficiency Used by the Mormon Pioneers.") Well... I have a few other books of note but am not near my bookshelf at the moment. Just wanted to see what you think, and what are your favorites?

Thanks ahead of time. :)
Last edited by ason123 on July 25th, 2017, 11:59 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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brlenox
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Re: Favorite books on self-sufficiency

Post by brlenox »

1) AVOW preparedness manual.

This is actually a very good manual. A little odd on the disclaimer but good information inside.

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Yahtzee
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Re: Favorite books on self-sufficiency

Post by Yahtzee »

Beyond Wheat and Weeds.
This is a great compilation of first aid and alternative heath care remedies for emergencies and health situations. I've used it many times for my family and been able to avoid a number of visits to urgent care.

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ason123
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Re: Favorite books on self-sufficiency

Post by ason123 »

brlenox wrote: July 24th, 2017, 4:32 pm 1) AVOW preparedness manual.

This is actually a very good manual. A little odd on the disclaimer but good information inside.
So true! Some might say a bit extreme, but I downloaded the free pdf version of it first and found that the info inside was really useful. I actually like the odd vibe to it. :-)

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LDS Physician
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Re: Favorite books on self-sufficiency

Post by LDS Physician »

Great list, thank you so much.

gardener4life
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Re: Favorite books on self-sufficiency

Post by gardener4life »

I might not be quoting the title perfectly but there's a book called both, 'Edible plants of North America' and 'Edible and Poisonous Plants of the Rocky Mountains' or something like that.

OCDMOM
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Re: Favorite books on self-sufficiency

Post by OCDMOM »

I like watching the youtube videos.

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ason123
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Re: Favorite books on self-sufficiency

Post by ason123 »

OCDMOM wrote: August 14th, 2017, 5:43 pm I like watching the youtube videos.
Ooooo me too! Any favorite channels?

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gclayjr
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Re: Favorite books on self-sufficiency

Post by gclayjr »

Our ward was an early trial location for the Church's Pathways program. Last Sunday, our Bishop gave us a pep talk encouraging those who might benefit from the Pathways program to consider signing up this year. In our HP quorum meeting, they stated that the next program the Church is moving forward on is a "Self Sufficiency" program. They gave us a few specifics. It would focus on things such as Budgeting and getting out of debt. Improving skills. How to choose and seek for better jobs etc. Nothing was said about Food Storage, bottling, or gardening. and certainly nothing was said about building shelters in the mountains, go bags, guns, and escape plans. I did ask them specifically about whether they were going to give any instruction on building steam engines and they told me no :)

I think we spend too much time living in a self fulfilling fantasy that we know about an impending apocalypse such as this 9/23 crap and that we spend too much time preparing to escape this fantasized imminent apocalypse and don't prepare for the drip drip drip of real modern problems we are really dealing with and will probably be dealing with in the future.

The Church is evolving it's concept of preparedness and I think maybe the Church has it right here. There is a prepper web page where his saying is something like

Being prepared for if things really go bad.... or even if they don't.

I think there is good advice there.

Regards,

George Clay

Finrock
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Re: Favorite books on self-sufficiency

Post by Finrock »

gclayjr wrote: August 15th, 2017, 7:15 am Our ward was an early trial location for the Church's Pathways program. Last Sunday, our Bishop gave us a pep talk encouraging those who might benefit from the Pathways program to consider signing up this year. In our HP quorum meeting, they stated that the next program the Church is moving forward on is a "Self Sufficiency" program. They gave us a few specifics. It would focus on things such as Budgeting and getting out of debt. Improving skills. How to choose and seek for better jobs etc. Nothing was said about Food Storage, bottling, or gardening. and certainly nothing was said about building shelters in the mountains, go bags, guns, and escape plans. I did ask them specifically about whether they were going to give any instruction on building steam engines and they told me no :)

I think we spend too much time living in a self fulfilling fantasy that we know about an impending apocalypse such as this 9/23 crap and that we spend too much time preparing to escape this fantasized imminent apocalypse and don't prepare for the drip drip drip of real modern problems we are really dealing with and will probably be dealing with in the future.

The Church is evolving it's concept of preparedness and I think maybe the Church has it right here. There is a prepper web page where his saying is something like

Being prepared for if things really go bad.... or even if they don't.

I think there is good advice there.

Regards,

George Clay
The Personal Storehouse project is a multi-pronged approach to self-sufficiency. It covers financial security, educational needs, health, mental health, in addition to having food storage. The idea is to take a holistic approach to self-sufficiency. So while it is true the focus is not going to be on food storage, bottling, or gardening, these things are still a small part of the whole and are covered. People will be assigned personal storehouse mentors who will begin to work with families who agree to have mentors visit them. The mentors will begin to assess the needs of each family or individual, taking a look and covering all aspects that affect self-sufficiency. Each family or individual will likely have different needs or they might have a lot of stuff on their educational "shelf" but might be lacking in their emergency preparedness "shelf". Mentors will help families to make goals, provide contacts for resources based on family needs, and follow up with the bishop and personal storehouse leaders in the ward. The idea is not to solve the problems for people, but the idea is to help people solve their own problems by helping them identify areas that keep them from being self-sufficient and then connecting them to resources that can help them if they choose to act or desire to change.

-Finrock

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gclayjr
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Re: Favorite books on self-sufficiency

Post by gclayjr »

Finrock
The Personal Storehouse project is a multi-pronged approach to self-sufficiency. It covers financial security, educational needs, health, mental health, in addition to having food storage. The idea is to take a holistic approach to self-sufficiency. So while it is true the focus is not going to be on food storage, bottling, or gardening, these things are still a small part of the whole and are covered. People will be assigned personal storehouse mentors who will begin to work with families who agree to have mentors visit them. The mentors will begin to assess the needs of each family or individual, taking a look and covering all aspects that affect self-sufficiency. Each family or individual will likely have different needs or they might have a lot of stuff on their educational "shelf" but might be lacking in their emergency preparedness "shelf". Mentors will help families to make goals, provide contacts for resources based on family needs, and follow up with the bishop and personal storehouse leaders in the ward. The idea is not to solve the problems for people, but the idea is to help people solve their own problems by helping them identify areas that keep them from being self-sufficient and then connecting them to resources that can help them if they choose to act or desire to change.
Thanks for the added detail. Even though the brief discussion we had did not include those more traditional things such as food storage, and gardening, I did not mean to imply that they intended us to give up food storage, gardening and food preservation, but that the emphasis is shifting.

I remember back in the 70s, that I had an interest in self reliance. I looked a magazines and books that were available (not from the church) at that time, and I noticed that they spent only a small amount of attention to things like gardening and food preservation, and that the bulk of their coverage was about guns, bug out locations and how to protect your food storage from hoards of starving neighbors.

I decided 2 things at that time

1) I am not interested in bug out locations, automatic weapons, concertina wire and things like that.

2) If the only way I am going to live through some apocalyptic future is to machine gun down my starving neighbors, then I don't want to live through it. I will share what I have and join them in starving after its gone.

For some reason people seem to get more excited about dramatic militia like preparations against some imagined Zombie apocalypse that they think is just around the corner, than preparing for the problems we can see clearly happing today around us, such as loss or reduction of employment and excessive debt, which is more likely to be a problem today, than the more sexy zombie apocalypse.

Regards,

George Clay

Finrock
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Re: Favorite books on self-sufficiency

Post by Finrock »

gclayjr wrote: August 15th, 2017, 6:38 pm 2) If the only way I am going to live through some apocalyptic future is to machine gun down my starving neighbors, then I don't want to live through it. I will share what I have and join them in starving after its gone.
Me too!

-Finrock

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FTC
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Re: Favorite books on self-sufficiency

Post by FTC »

I'm gonna third this one. Specifically for world wide desolation, like a nuclear end of world, I will gather up my kids and drive as close as we can to the most likely target, take out our lawn chairs, and watch the show. As soon as its all over, we'll all gather together on the other side where we shall rest from all our labors. The only thing those that get from making it thru it, if they ever do, is some bragging rights. None of which I have ever heard Heavenly Father say is requisite for Celestial exaltation. Glory and honor only lasts for a handful of generations, and then its forgotten like an old newspaper left in a box in the attic.

Specifically to the topic of this thread, I am currently reading "The Road". Yep, that one that they made a movie of. Granted, it is fiction, but then again, to a degree, so is every book that attempts to divine the future. If things become that bad, there is nothing great and grand about any of that. Not one thing. And you ain't gonna survive. There are no amount of guns, no amount of bullets, no amount of prepping, no amount of food storage, no amount of bug out locations, that's gonna make it for you to live a pleasing life in that. Why people get giddy about being a part of that is beyond reason. I say it is because too many end of world preppers get fixated on the always win video games and happily-ever-after movies. Um, hello, its all make-believe!

Mala_Suerte
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Re: Favorite books on self-sufficiency

Post by Mala_Suerte »

FTC wrote: August 16th, 2017, 10:51 am I'm gonna third this one. Specifically for world wide desolation, like a nuclear end of world, I will gather up my kids and drive as close as we can to the most likely target, take out our lawn chairs, and watch the show. As soon as its all over, we'll all gather together on the other side where we shall rest from all our labors. The only thing those that get from making it thru it, if they ever do, is some bragging rights. None of which I have ever heard Heavenly Father say is requisite for Celestial exaltation. Glory and honor only lasts for a handful of generations, and then its forgotten like an old newspaper left in a box in the attic.

Specifically to the topic of this thread, I am currently reading "The Road". Yep, that one that they made a movie of. Granted, it is fiction, but then again, to a degree, so is every book that attempts to divine the future. If things become that bad, there is nothing great and grand about any of that. Not one thing. And you ain't gonna survive. There are no amount of guns, no amount of bullets, no amount of prepping, no amount of food storage, no amount of bug out locations, that's gonna make it for you to live a pleasing life in that. Why people get giddy about being a part of that is beyond reason. I say it is because too many end of world preppers get fixated on the always win video games and happily-ever-after movies. Um, hello, its all make-believe!
I'm being a lot facetious and I'm guessing you were too, but if David sending a soldier to the front lines, knowing full well he will die, is murder, then wouldn't taking your family and driving towards a likely target of a nuclear bomb be akin to murder/suicide. Just stirring the pot, I get your point.

What the righteous survivors could get is a front row seat to the second coming of Christ.

I'm somewhat torn on surviving the end of the world as we know it. On the one hand, I'd rather watch from the other side. On the other, however, I want to be able to help my family and friends as much as possible, so I want to stay.

Regarding the Self-Sufficiency program, I think the church has seen the writing on the wall, in that despite what, on the surface, appears to be a robust economy there are many people who are not finding a stable job or are drastically underemployed requiring support from the church. I personally see lots of bubbles out there. President Hinckley, in the early 2000's, if I recall correctly, quoted a statistic stating that gone are the days of our parents where we stay at one job for 30 years. He was encouraging people to get an education and realize they will likely change jobs 3 or 4 times throughout their lifetime. Personally, I've had to reinvent myself career-wise three times and as oil and gas struggle to stabilize, I may have to do it a fourth time.

brianj
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Re: Favorite books on self-sufficiency

Post by brianj »

Mala_Suerte wrote: August 30th, 2017, 6:47 pm I'm being a lot facetious and I'm guessing you were too, but if David sending a soldier to the front lines, knowing full well he will die, is murder, then wouldn't taking your family and driving towards a likely target of a nuclear bomb be akin to murder/suicide. Just stirring the pot, I get your point.

What the righteous survivors could get is a front row seat to the second coming of Christ.

I'm somewhat torn on surviving the end of the world as we know it. On the one hand, I'd rather watch from the other side. On the other, however, I want to be able to help my family and friends as much as possible, so I want to stay.

Regarding the Self-Sufficiency program, I think the church has seen the writing on the wall, in that despite what, on the surface, appears to be a robust economy there are many people who are not finding a stable job or are drastically underemployed requiring support from the church. I personally see lots of bubbles out there. President Hinckley, in the early 2000's, if I recall correctly, quoted a statistic stating that gone are the days of our parents where we stay at one job for 30 years. He was encouraging people to get an education and realize they will likely change jobs 3 or 4 times throughout their lifetime. Personally, I've had to reinvent myself career-wise three times and as oil and gas struggle to stabilize, I may have to do it a fourth time.
I agree that such action would be a great sin.

Regarding surviving versus not, I would give almost anything - anything but my eternal salvation - to survive through what's coming. Yes, the end of the world as we know it is going to be miserable, but it's also going to be miraculous. We will develop greater faith than I can now imagine. We will be tools in the Lord's hands to bring about great miracles. Tens of millions, probably hundreds of millions, of people in North America will die, but those who are left will be so humbled that missionary work is going to experience unprecedented success. I have wanted to take a mission with an eternal companion since the end of my first mission, and if I am privileged to serve a mission at that time I believe we will have more people to teach than we know what to do with. Baptisms will probably be an hourly experience throughout daylight hours, seven days per week.

I do have to admit that I also look forward to no longer having to worry about a job or bills, but even if the prophesied tribulations don't come for another decade I won't be able to do everything I want to do before then because I don't have both the time and money for those activities and experiences.

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