Right now
Something is happening
You have minutes, not hours. Each scenario opens with what to do first and the clocks that are already running.
Preparedness: Understood & Organized
The Preparedness
Field Manual
for Being Ready
Knowledge, supplies, and self reliance for when the normal systems fail. Ask it a question, or browse by what you need and what is happening.
How do I make tap water safe when the treatment plant goes down?How do I keep eggs for a year with no fridge?How do I reach my family when the cell towers are dark?How do I get antibiotics on the shelf before I need them?How do I filter drinking water with no power and no plumbing?What goes in the bag by the door if we have to leave tonight?Which portable power station will run my fridge and CPAP?
What brings you here?
Pick one. It takes you to the right page.
Looking it up
I need an answer
Is it still good? Can these two share a shelf? How do I make it? Look it up here, free, no sign-in.
Getting ready
I am building my supplies
Nothing is happening yet, and that's the time to build. The steps in order, what to stock, and where you're weakest.
Stay Ready
New entries, updates, and useful instruction.
Stay one step ahead on your preparedness journey.
Why become a member
Take the whole manual off the screen
When the grid goes down, this site goes with it. Paper does not. Membership opens every page and every recipe from the book, hands over every field guide as a PDF, and gives you My Manual: one binder built from this site for your household alone.
- 158member pages in full
- 138recipes with exact amounts
- 10field guides, 266 pages of PDFs
- 1manual of your own, built from any page
My Manual · the reason to join
One manual, built from this site, that is yours alone
Every page here has a "Save to My Manual" button. Press it on the recipes, charts, parts lists, and whole field guides that fit your house, arrange them in the order you want, name it, and print one manual with a cover . Or keep it as a PDF that opens with no signal. No book on any shelf fits your household this exactly.
- It works when this site does notNo power and no signal means no website. A printed manual and an offline PDF still open, which is the whole point of writing any of this down.
- Only your pagesThis site covers every household. Yours needs a fraction of it. Your manual holds the pages that match your water source, your climate, and your gear, so nobody digs through the rest under stress.
- Anyone in the house can use itThe person who reads this site may not be the one home when it counts. A binder on the shelf, in the order you chose, is something a spouse or a teenager can follow.
- One current copy, not a pile of printoutsEvery page prints in the same field guide layout with a cover and the print date. Change a page, print again, and the old copy is easy to spot.
- 1Save what fits
- 2Arrange it your way
- 3Print it or save a PDF
- 4Keep it current
Browse by need
What do you need to cover?
WaterStore it, purify it, and prove it is safe16 entriesFoodEat-now, cook-from, and long-term bulk99 entriesCooking, Fuel and FireCook a meal, make heat, and start a fire15 entriesMedicalStop bleeding, treat wounds, and buy time54 entriesHygiene and SanitationStay clean and contain waste30 entriesCompounds and CleaningClean, disinfect, and treat with a few stable compounds61 entriesTools and RepairCut, fasten, patch, and fix33 entriesPower and LightKeep power and light when the grid is down11 entriesCommunicationsRadios, satellite, and staying in contact8 entriesWarmth and ShelterStay warm and dry7 entriesSecurityDeter, protect, and stay aware8 entriesGarden and LivestockGrow and protect your own food30 entriesKits and PlanningGo-bags, documents, and the plan23 entries
Browse by event
What is happening?
BlackoutThe power is out and nobody knows for how long.Winter StormCold, ice, closed roads, and often no power.Wildfire and EvacuationYou have minutes to leave and may not come back soon.FloodWater is rising, or the cleanup has begun.Water OutageThe tap is dry, or the water is no longer safe.Nuclear and RadiationFallout, a plant accident, or a radiological event.EMPElectronics and the grid go down together.Rising Prices and ShortagesShelves thin out and prices climb.No Doctor AvailableHelp is hours away or not coming.
Free download
Get the one-page food shopping list
What to store, how much of it for one person for one month, and how long it keeps. One page with checkboxes, built from the Survival Foods field guide. Print it, multiply by your people and months, and take it to the store.
The PDF comes by email, with my newsletter now and then. Already on the list? You still get it. Read the full page.
New to this?
Start here
Where to begin, the order to build in, what I recommend, and a full tour of everything on this site.
Look it up fast
The reference shelf
Shelf life table196 items, sortable, with real lifespan and best storage.
How do I...Every question the manual answers, grouped by need.
Never-mix chartThe compound pairs that must stay apart, with a two-tap checker.
Walk-around auditScore 15 systems from 1 to 5 and see the weakest link.
Multi-use matrixTwenty items, eight jobs. See what covers the most ground.
Glossary233 terms in plain language.
Print it, keep it
The field guides
Each one is a printable PDF built to live in a binder: checklists, charts, and numbers you can use with the power out. Buy one of the six standalone guides for $10, or get every one of them with membership.
Start with this one
Walk-Around Preparedness Audit
It tells you what to fix before you spend a dollar. Every other guide makes more sense once you know your weakest system.
15 systems scored200 checkpoints1 to 5 readiness scale33 pages
The master checklist
Stockpile Essentials Field Guide
239 items across 16 categories, with the 20 multi-use items that earn their shelf space. Use it to shop with a plan.
16 categories239 items to check off20 multi-use items39 pages
For the pantry
Survival Foods Field Guide
Real shelf life for 64 foods against the date on the label, how much to store, and how to tell when something has turned.
50+ foods & staples18 sections4 appendices35 pages
For the compound shelf
Chemical Compounds Field Guide
All 33 compounds on quick cards: what it does, how to store it, how long it keeps, and what never to mix.
33 compoundsA-Z every entry listed9 never-mix pairs29 pages
For the house itself
Spare Parts and Repair Stock Field Guide
260 parts across 27 systems. The cheap parts that fail, listed so you can buy them before you need them.
27 categories260 parts listedBuy 2 store 140 pages
For the binder
The Preparedness Logbook
25 sections of fill-in pages: contacts, medical, documents, plans, supplies. The record your family uses when you are not there.
4 parts25 sections161 fill-in fields30 pages
Power and light · prints from its page
Off-Grid Portable Solar Power Field Guide
Size a power station and a folding panel, pair them, wire them, keep them alive.
16 pagesFree to read
Power and light · prints from its page
Home Backup Power System Field Guide
A battery and a hybrid inverter wired into the house: hybrid against off-grid, the wiring, the mistake to skip.
20 pagesFree to read
Skill · prints from its page
The Four Knots
Which knot for the job, and how to tie each one in four moves.
6 pagesFree to read
Evacuation · prints from its page
The Bug-Out Bag Field Guide
One bag per person for three days: the twelve jobs, the afternoon build, the packing plan, every item by job, and the checklist.
18 pagesFree to read
Or get every one of them
Membership includes every field guide, and a lot more
Ten guides bought one at a time cost $100. Membership is $49.95 per year and adds every member recipe with exact amounts, every recipe and resource from the Prepper's Chemical Survival Guide, the full audit and logbook, all the reference charts, and My Manual: your own printed binder.
Take it off the grid
The book and the field guides
This site works while the internet does. The printed book and the PDF field guides work when it does not. Members can also build a manual of their own from any page here and print it.
One last look
Ten things worth knowing before you go
Each one changes what you do this week. The pages behind them are free to read.
The power just went out
A blackout starts three clocks at once
The food in the fridge, the water pressure in the lines, and the heat in the house. What you do in the first 45 minutes matters more than anything you buy afterward: fill every container with water, confirm the scope, stay out of the stores.
The blackout page: the first 45 minutes, the first three days, and beyond- About 4 hoursFridge. Eat or cook what spoils first while it is still cold.
- 24 to 48 hoursFreezer. Full lasts about 48, half-full about 24. Keep the door shut.
- MinutesCarbon monoxide. Any indoor combustion can kill fast. A detector in every heated room.
30 to 50gallons
The water hiding in your house
Your water heater holds 30 to 50 gallons of clean water. Add the pipes, the toilet tank (not the bowl) and the ice in the freezer, and the first few days are covered before you open a single bottle.
How to drain it safely17hours
A 1 kWh station runs the fridge overnight
Hours on a charge = watt-hours × 0.85 ÷ the load's watts. A 1,024 Wh power station runs a fridge averaging 50 W for about 17 hours, and a 400 to 480 W folding panel refills it in an afternoon of sun. No wiring, no permit, useful on day one.
Size a station and panel to your loads10+phone charges
One power bank keeps the phone alive
A 60,000 mAh bank charges a phone more than ten times. The first hour of an outage is headlamps, a lantern, the power bank and the radio on, with the fridge and freezer kept shut.
The gear for the first hour, night and week20milliseconds
Roof solar goes dark with the grid
Grid-tied panels with no battery shut off when the grid does. A battery and a hybrid inverter keep the house on: mine islands the whole panel in 20 ms, and the transfer switch I bought first only narrowed the pipe.
The 15 kWh system, the mistake and the fix10years
Pool shock outlasts bleach
Liquid bleach loses its strength in a year or two. Dry calcium hypochlorite keeps up to ten years, and one tablespoon of stock solution treats a gallon in 30 minutes.
The compound, the mix and the warnings5minutes
A bad bleed does not wait for help
A major bleed can kill in under five minutes, faster than any ambulance arrives. A real tourniquet, hemostatic gauze and the training to use them come before everything else in the kit.
Build the kit in this order5compounds
The whole shelf starts with five
Baking soda, non-iodized salt, calcium hypochlorite, white vinegar and 3 percent peroxide. They purify water, disinfect, clean and preserve, and every other compound builds on them. Buy those first and learn them before you add a sixth.
The four phases, with amounts and where to buy30years
The bag decides how long rice lasts
In the store bag, white rice is good for four or five years. Seal the same rice in Mylar with an oxygen absorber, keep it cool and dark, and it keeps 20 to 30. Ten pounds a month per person, about 1,650 calories a pound.
How to store it, and how much per personUnder 50%humidity, 50 to 70°F
The storage rule for every compound
Steady temperature, dry air, no light, and glass instead of metal. Get those four right and a supply that would fail in months lasts for years.
Conditions, containers and labelsStay Ready
New entries, updates, and useful instruction.
Stay one step ahead on your preparedness journey.
