The concept of family preparedness can mean different things to different people. For starters, exacting 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?
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 about that can be pretty darned 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 for it to become soft enough to become a very 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 from them. Periods in which your preparedness will be put to the test are,
by definition,
going to be highly stressful and create high levels of tension. The minute the tension starts getting to a family member’s head, pop a cork between their teeth and have them lie down while very gently chewing on the cork. After about five or ten minutes, it is very likely that the threat of developing a full-blown headache will disappear.
Oil of Cloves
Oil of cloves has such a long history of use to treat 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 very small amount of oil of cloves applied to the affected tooth to bring about great relief in a very short period of 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 serious 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 sore 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 be used to make such restricted confinement a bit more pleasant-smelling. Not only will cider vinegar take away body odor while not affecting the natural process of detoxification, but once it dries, the strong vinegar scent disappears as well.
All the little irritants that become enormous problems under survivalist conditions need to become a standard part of your process of family preparedness. Maybe you can withstand the pain of a headache or toothache or the irrigation 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 bigger sense of the word?
Check out my Preparedness Archives for more prepping tips — I’ve been getting a lot of positive feedback on how folks have used my posts to help get them started preparing for whatever lies ahead. Then, share these posts so that others you know and care about can also benefit from the information.
