Destiny Survival

Lahey founded the Sullivan Street Bakery in New York and obviously knows something about bread. But this bread making method isn’t complicated. It’s revolutionary in its simplicity.

Lahey explains his method and how the process works. Time, moisture and enzymes are key. He also shares several photos with the recipes. Incidentally, recipes use Metric measurements, but aren’t difficult to convert, according to reviewers.

This no-knead dough technique calls for flour, yeast, salt, and water, which are mixed together and left for 12-18 hours. It can then be baked in a Dutch oven or something similar. No special baking equipment or bread machine is necessary.

But you can make more than just a loaf of bread. Make pizza, ciabatta, foccacia, rye bread and more. Part of the book focuses on sandwiches. Plus, you can experiment with different kinds of flour.

When you’re thinking survival, you want something basic, but good. Jim Lahey’s My Bread fills that need. Get your copy by clicking on the image of the book below, and place your order at Amazon.com today.

Isn’t it a relief knowing bread making doesn’t have to be complicated?

You don’t have to be a wealthy yacht owner taking world cruises to live on a boat. Those who make the break from traditional housing often experience pleasant surprises. For instance, there’s a sense of community and a different mentality among those on the water.

Home is Where the Boat Is gives the account of Thomas sailing the Pacific and Caribbean for 13 years with the man she loved. It’s not a how-to book or boating encyclopedia, but an easy read about their lifestyle on a low budget. She simply tells what it was like.

Thomas brings to light practical matters, such as handling laundry and garbage, getting food and water, making it through sickness and storms, making a living, and encounters with people along the way.

Discover what’s possible when it comes to escaping the rat race. Click on the image of the book below and order your copy of Home is Where the Boat Is, by Emy Thomas from Amazon.com.

If living on a boat as a means of survival appeals to you, buy Home is Where the Boat Is and consider what it takes to do what you want to do.

Letting you know about this is a no-brainer because solar cooking could be essential for survival. It can be done wherever there’s sunshine. It doesn’t require additional fuel and is simple to do.

Cooking with Sunshine is a definitive guide that not only offers a wide variety of recipes, but includes step by step, illustrated info on making your own simple solar cooker with items you have around the house or can get inexpensively.

If you’d rather not build your own solar cooker, but want a quality commercially produced solar oven instead, Cooking with Sunshine has info on where you can buy one. Lehman’s is one source I know of. (See below.)

The authors also explain the benefits of solar cooking compared to traditional methods. They describe what works and what doesn’t.

As one of the reviewers on Amazon.com points out, you can use any recipe when cooking with the sun. Allow twice the cooking time for conventional recipes. When you’re starting out, this book is a great solar cooking recipe resource.

You don’t have to wait for an emergency or disaster to use solar cooking. When it’s hot in the summer, you don’t want to heat up your kitchen or draw extra electricity to cook. Solar cooking offers you a great alternative.

Of course, you can cook with sunshine when you’re camping, too. The kids will think it’s really neat.

Add Cooking with Sunshine to your survival kitchen collection. Click on the image of the book below, and you’ll be taken to the Amazon.com page where it’s featured. Order one there. Better yet, order an extra copy to give as a gift and introduce someone you care about to an important preparedness cooking alternative.

As long as the sun shines, take advantage of its free energy to prepare your food.

This book is specifically written for city dwellers who have limited space. Ruppenthal was looking for a book like this, couldn’t find one, and wrote this one as a result.

It’s not strictly a how-to book, though there is some of that as he shares his own experiences. It’s an introduction to a number of topics and ideas, which makes it a great starting point for further research or experimentation.

Fresh Food from Small Spaces is easy to read. Chapters are short in size, but long on ideas. If you’ve been gardening a while, many of these ideas won’t be new, but I always enjoy reading someone else’s spin because it can spur the imagination to modify or improve an old idea.

Ruppenthal recommends a number of resources throughout the book, several of which I’ve mentioned here previously. For example, one of the companies he recommends is Gardener’s Supply, whose ad you’ll find on the sidebar here or in the Prep Mart.

Chapter 12 near the end shares a basic overview of preparedness. He believes an important reason to grow our own food is because of possible forthcoming energy shortages due to high costs and limited resources. I believe it’s necessary to grow our own food for other reasons, but the main one is that you’ll have food. period.

He encourages readers to grow food on the roof, in the garage, or on the patio. Grow sprouts on top of the refrigerator. Grow mushrooms in a closet. Pull out a shrub in your yard and plant a berry bush. Grow anywhere it doesn’t seem possible to grow food. Raise chickens, keep bees, and make your own yogurt. Use your imagination.

Ruppenthal discusses basics such as good soil, fertilizers and seed starting. He also covers the best containers for growing vegetables. This includes info on self-watering containers. The Earthbox gets a good recommendation, but he also gives tips on making your own self-watering containers.

Though he’s not a proponent of hydroponics due to the energy used for lighting and pumps, he doesn’t seem to recognize that self-watering containers are a method of passive hydroponics.

Rather than using a great deal of artificial lighting, Ruppenthal recommends maximizing available light, including ways to reflect light. He’s not opposed to using lighting altogether, for which I’m glad. Getting adequate light to plants, especially indoors, is always a challenge.

Ruppenthal is a big proponent of sprouting your own grains, beans, and other seeds, and he suggests how to use sprouts. In a section on making yogurt and other fermented foods, he includes a few recipes. There’s also a chapter on raising mushrooms, something at which I’ve been unsuccessful.

This is a book I highly recommend for your survival library. Even if you live in the country and have plenty of garden space, you’ll discover ideas you may not have thought of for growing indoors and in containers.

Get your copy of Fresh Food from Small Spaces by clicking on the image of the book below and ordering from the page that appears, which features this book. Plus, it would make a great gift for someone who’s in an urban area or who is new to gardening. Why not order today and explore your urban survival gardening possibilities?

If you’re looking for a book on losing weight, this isn’t it. It’s about shedding possessions, not pounds.

The deteriorating economy has forced many of us into making transitions we hadn’t planned on. If not the economy, maybe it’s a divorce, major illness, being widowed, or some other personal upheaval that forces us to reinvent our lives.

All of the above scenarios require making transitions from life as we know it now to something that’s not so familiar. When I came across Right Sizing Your Life, I thought it might be of interest to anyone preparing for a new lifestyle. And many of us who are prepping are doing just that.

Right Sizing Your Life was published in 2007 before the economic crash we’ve experienced in the past couple of years. But because so many are forced into making transitions that were once made deliberately and voluntarily, it’s a book to consider for your survival library.

If your survival plans are to toss a few essentials in a garbage bag and live in a tent in the woods, this book is more than you need. However, Ware does briefly mention the possibility of paring down to bare essentials when threatened by tsunami or hurricane.

Right sizing doesn’t necessarily mean down sizing, though it most often does. It may mean upscaling, such as when you’re moving from the city to a place out in the country for homesteading. Or it may mean staying where you are and making major adjustments. Maybe you need to make accommodations for elderly parents or grown children moving in with you.

This book is mainly aimed at affluent urban dwellers who need to move to smaller living quarters. But the principles apply to anybody on any income scale. For instance, we could all use some decluttering from time to time. You know how it is. What do you do about that giant collection of penguin salt and pepper shakers?

Also, the book is meant for those over 50 who are in need of making a transition in life. But Don’t let that keep you from reading through it because it shares principles that can apply to anyone of any age.

When making a major change in life, talk things over with one another in your family. Realize there’s a significant emotional component involved. It’s hard to give up what we’ve been attached to. Change doesn’t come easily.

Are you or those in your household prisoners of your possessions? How can you determine what’s suitable to bring with you into your new lifestyle? How can you clear the clutter and simplify?

Ware discusses donating, gifting, selling, recycling, repairing, or trashing everything from household appliances and computers to clothes, photos and papers. When is it time to call in the professionals? Is there a right time to rent storage space?

Right Sizing Your Life provides guidance for taking deliberate steps to prepare for your new way of life. It’s a major undertaking and deserves adequate consideration and time. Ware assumes you’ve got the time and means to make changes that need to be made.

There’s a resource directory at the end of the book that covers a wide range of topics you might not have thought of. The book is worth it for the directory alone. Plus, there’s a Web site with an updated directory at www.rightsizingyourlife.com .

Frankly, Right Sizing Your Life contains a great deal of narrative that didn’t interest me, but there is useful information throughout the book. Because it’s not aimed at preppers, you may have to look for what applies to you. A reviewer who said the book doesn’t take packrats into consideration apparently didn’t read the relevant sections.

Whether your preparedness and survival strategy calls for down sizing or upscaling, get a copy of Right Sizing Your Life. Click now on the image of the book below and you’ll be taken to the Amazon.com page where it’s featured. Add it to your cart to start the order process.

It’s times like these that you need a road map and all the practical advice you can get. Right Sizing Your Life has the suggestions and tips that will get you started today.

He showed it at the NAACP national conference, where it was well received by a panel hosted by NAACP’s Criminal Justice Program. Their focus was on youth and the criminal justice system. Few there had any previous training on knowing their rights.

Ignorance is truly not bliss, but can lead to serious trouble, especially when dealing with law enforcement officials. “10 Rules” isn’t about being “in your face” with police at all. It’s about knowing your rights without whipping out a copy of the Constitution.

In fact, it’s about being smart and knowing when to shut up.

On the other hand, saying the right phrases can change the nature of the encounter with police and turn things in your favor.

Something that struck me from Steve’s e-mail is that “10 Rules” is not oonly well received by the NAACP, but by a diverse audience, including Libertarians and police departments, too. I can Imagine there are a lot of honest cops who don’t want to tangle with you and me any more than we want to tangle with them.

Because it’s earning praise from so many places, I’m making “10 Rules for Dealing with Police” this Week’s DestinySurvival Amazon Pick of the Week. To buy your copy, click on the image of the DVD below. Then order from the page that comes up featuring “10 Rules.”

Don’t let ignorance get you into trouble. Be smart. Stay cool, but know your rights.