Prepare Your Family For Survival: A Book Review

Recently I've been reading about and giving a lot of thought to emergency preparedness. Survival. Planning in case of a natural disaster or man-made emergency.

As a wife and mom, the person in the household who plans daily meals and re-stocks the pantry once or twice a week, how would I feed and otherwise care for my family if I couldn't get out to buy food?

What if the power went out and the blackout lasted for several days or even weeks. How would we cook? Would we have enough water to drink? To use in cooking? To wash with or flush the toilet?

I've asked myself, "Is our family prepared for an emergency situation?"

Is yours?

Meet Author Linda Loosli

As I sought out answers, I came across a helpful book called Prepare Your Family for Survival, written by Linda Loosli, founder of Food Storage Moms. Linda has been schooling herself (and others) for decades and she knows the topic of emergency preparation inside and out.

Linda first became interested in preparedness when she was a teenager and thrust into a situation that included a serious snowstorm, an empty pantry, and several mouths to feed. Due to extenuating circumstances, she and a cousin were put in a position of having to find food for the family. Quite a task at age 16. And, really, at any age!

Linda vowed to herself after the snowstorm disaster that when she grew up and had a family, she would see to it that they were always prepared to face an emergency, that she would always have enough food and other supplies stored, just in case. After she was married, she put her thoughts into action. She began with a garden, advanced to canning food, then eventually began reaching out to neighbors and church friends, teaching classes to help other women learn how to prepare their families, too.

Prepare Your Family For Survival
Click the book cover for a peek inside.

This is Not a Doomsday Book

Often when people think of preparing for survival, the term "doomsday" finds its way into the conversation. Linda doesn't use fear to motivate. Having lived through emergencies, she knows very well what we all should know: power outages and other unexpected scenarios can and do occur with little or no warning, anytime, anywhere. And it's up to each family to prepare. While her practical methods and advice speak mainly to women, the steps to becoming prepared to survive apply to the entire family.

What You'll Learn From The Book

Most of Prepare Your Family For Survival addresses how to prepare to brave an emergency at home, though there also is a very helpful section on "bugging out," deciding when it's best to leave your home and what to take when you do. Linda has done the math for her readers, providing lists, charts, and check-off sheets based on family size. She even includes sections on the special needs that young children and pets present.

I like that the author makes it clear that water is first and foremost when it comes to what individuals need to survive. She also writes about storing food and how to choose which food to store, emergency cooking situations, what to do when the power is out, family first aid and medical preparedness, personal hygiene, and laundry. Her advice is concise and helpful even to the point of recommending particular products that work. And since Linda has tested literally just about every survival product ever invented, she definitely knows what works and what doesn't.

Who Needs This Book

The book addresses the basics of preparedness and survival, but even those with prior experience in the field may learn a thing or two. If you're a beginner and need to finally get started storing survival essentials, this is a perfect book for you.

To me, the introduction of the book is worth its price for the peace of mind that it offers. Understanding that it's important to treat preparedness as part of a lifestyle takes the "scary and overwhelming" out of the topic. And, let's face it, many of us only think about how prepared we really are when the tornado sirens start or the first forecast of just where the next hurricane might make landfall appears on the nightly news.

Despite my well-known affinity for ebooks and my beloved Kindle, I bought this book in the paperback version. There are lots of charts and lists inside and I've been flipping back and forth through the chapters since I got my copy. In this case paper is convenient and besides, charging your tablet might not be a big priority when the power's been out for days.

Make your choice (paper or ebook) at this link. Then please come back and leave a comment to let me and other readers know what you learned from the book that you didn't already know, and how the book helped motivate you to Prepare Your Family For Survival.

~Susan Deppner
Read more of my reviews.

You might also like: When the Grid Goes Down: A Book Review

Posted by Susan Deppner

About the Author

Susan Deppner is a baby boomer, a cancer survivor, and a Southerner who believes in the Golden Rule. She enjoys writing about food, faith, and fitness; health, home, and holidays; people, places, pets, and patriotism, and more. Follow Susan on Twitter, Facebook, and Pinterest.

Note: The author may receive a commission from purchases made using links found in this article. “As an Amazon Associate, Ebay (EPN) and/or Esty (Awin) Affiliate, I (we) earn from qualifying purchases.”

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When The Grid Goes Down: A Book Review

If you consider yourself a "prepper" and have both a plan and supplies to support the plan over the course of a major or long-term disaster, then you don't need to read this book or my review. You're good to go and I thank you for stopping by.

However, if you're among the two-thirds of us who don't have an emergency plan in place and have nothing more than a few extra cans of food, a bag of rice, and a case of bottled water in the pantry, then it's very important that you stop what you're doing, read the book, and start working on a survival plan for your family.

The book to which I refer is called When the Grid Goes Down: Disaster Preparations and Survival Gear for Making Your Home Self-Reliant. Its emphasis is more on developing both a plan and a mindset as you implement your plan than it is on where to buy a good bug-out bag. The latter information you can find anywhere; the former is not discussed in emergency prep books nearly as much as it should be. That's one of the reasons I liked this book so much and recommend it highly to those who tend to get overwhelmed when the subject of emergency preparedness is discussed. (What, you haven't started building your passive solar straw bale house yet??)

Author Tony Nester is a survival expert and teacher with an impressive resume, well-respected in the survival training community. He also has a good writing style and presents this important information in a way that makes sense rather than trying to scare us into buying the latest gadget, gizmo, or fad on the prepper market.

In his book the author discusses in depth six key survival priorities then encourages us to tackle those basics in a "layering" method (for example, start with your case of bottled water, then add water jugs, later add a rain barrel, and eventually learn how to purify water from surrounding ponds or springs). This method will enable our families to survive short-term first, then long-term as our plans and prep levels progress. He convincingly encourages readers to take action, step by step, to bring their plan into a workable reality. No reason to get overwhelmed if you follow this advice.

Who will take care of your family
after a disaster?
Photo: FEMA/Jacinta Quesada
In the Public Domain

Being prepared means something different for everyone, depending on where they live, size and makeup of their family, geographic and weather considerations where they live and work, and even income, but there are important overlaps. No matter whether you're more likely to deal with the aftermath of a hurricane than a tornado, the six priorities you'll learn from Tony apply to everyone. That's why I believe every beginning to intermediate "prepper" can benefit from the information in this book. And if you're in the very beginning states of planning and prepping, that especially means you.

Whether the cause is a cyber-attack, a natural disaster, a nuclear attack, or something somewhere in between, chances become greater every day that you will be called upon by circumstances to take care of yourself and your family during a major service and power outage. Such an episode could be lengthy and certainly could alter your life in a major way, starting within hours of the event, when you least expect it. This excellent book will help you prepare.

When The Grid Goes Down by Tony Nester is available in both paperback and e-book format for your Kindle or other reading device. The book has received 4.3 stars from over 225 reviewers and is a bestseller in multiple categories on Amazon.com.

Books From Author Tony Nester

~ Susan
Read more of my reviews.

Posted by Susan Deppner

About the Author

Susan Deppner is a baby boomer, a cancer survivor, and a Southerner who believes in the Golden Rule. She enjoys writing about food, faith, and fitness; health, home, and holidays; people, places, pets, and patriotism, and more. Follow Susan on Twitter, Facebook, and Pinterest.

Note: The author may receive a commission from purchases made using links found in this article. “As an Amazon Associate, Ebay (EPN) and/or Esty (Awin) Affiliate, I (we) earn from qualifying purchases.”

FOLLOW US ON: