Practical Reference Archive
or, Things Your Grandparents Learned Growing Up, but You Probably Didn't.

There are a lot of things that people generally used to know as common knowledge. Gardening, Horticulture, Animal Husbandry, Food Production and Storage, Cooking & Baking, Hunting, Fishing & Trapping, First Aid & Health, Building things, Fixing things, and much, much more. Fending for yourself was not a lifestyle choice, but life itself. Through the advent of new technologies, the necessity of knowing how to do these things has been dramatically reduced, or eliminated. Few people bake anymore, as the cost of a loaf of bread from a store is substantially less than the time and effort required to bake it at home. Even fewer people grow and preserve their own food. Who can beat a 59 cent can of green beans?! However, the system that is currently in place to deliver these goods is weak. The average grocery store has AT MOST only a few days worth of goods in stock at any given time. If their delivery system suddenly became crippled through a natural disaster, a terrorist attack, civil unrest, or other disruption, the stores would be empty in days. What then? Those who rely exclusively on this system will simply not survive. Preparing yourself will prevent you from being in this situation. That sometimes means preparing yourself against people who did not prepare. People who are scared and starving can be mean. Really, Really Mean.

Following the Boy Scout motto: Be Prepared. The key to emergency preparedness isn't stockpiling goods to cover every contingency, but rather to be informed and have a plan in place. A firm grasp of WHAT to do, and HOW to do it is infinitely more useful than a garage full of supplies that could be wiped out in a mere instant by a flood, fire or rampaging looters. Knowing WHAT to do with your stuff, or how to get by WITHOUT your stuff will keep you alive longer in an emergency; natural or otherwise. Certainly having a well-planned stock of goods and basic tools can make life much easier, but it's more about the quality than the quantity. An extra quart of oil and an air filter stashed in your car can be more valuable than a full mechanic's tool set, and much cheaper and easier to obtain. This sort of simple pre-planning can make the difference between making it through a crisis, or not.

Included below are reference materials that will help you gain a wide array of knowledge before an emergency strikes, so you can meet the challenges as they come, head on. They should at least give some food-for-thought, that hopefully will spur you to action, even if in small but significant ways. Some of these documents might be worth printing out and keeping a hard copy for future reference. For whatever reason, there might not be electricity available to power your computer, rendering electronic copies useless (unless you already read them, and have a photographic memory). Since the file sizes are relatively small, it still might be prudent to put them on a disc, a flash drive, or even load them on your cell phone (a smart phone or PDA can be a great low-power e-reader, if necessary!)

Read 'em once. Read 'em twice. Print a copy. Enjoy!

A Note on Copyright:

As with all written works, the authors put hard work and knowledge into a form that can be distributed, and they should be rewarded for their efforts. In some instances, the authors have graciously given their work freely to anyone who wishes to become informed, provided that those distributing it maintain the original work complete and intact, and do not profit from the materials. Some items below fall into that category (Survival and Austere Medicine, and Where There Is No Doctor, are examples).

Other items are old, for which the copyright has expired, but have been re-released under a fair use, public domain, or creative commons license (Every Step in Canning, Bibles, Historical Texts). Others are references that are freely available over the internet, and distribution is expected. Copyrights on those items are retained by the authors, even if distributed freely (US Forest Service publications, etc).

Some works are rare, or out of print, so a copy could not be obtained for purchase from any source (eg: Golden Book of Chemistry Experiments). I would gladly pay for these if they were available. As they are not, I feel it is more important to preserve the knowledge, than to discard the works over a copyright ambiguity.

However, some works are currently available, though obtaining them may perhaps be a difficult task. In the interest of practicality and fairness, I consider those items offered here to be 'advanced copies' of which I will be seeking physical copies as soon as is logistically practical. For example, 'A Patriot's History of the United States' is currently back-ordered from many sources like Barnes & Noble and Amazon, and may not be available for many weeks, or months.

Therefore, In order to secure a copy without having to wait for physical availability, and just in case they suddenly are no longer available, I have decided to download and make available these electronic copies. I will be purchasing a physical copy as soon as the situation allows, and in good conscience, you should too.

Thanks for your cooperation!

Gardening, Food Production and Preservation:

Food, Cooking, Recipes & Camp Techniques:

Home Energy Production & Storage:

Medical Reference:

Survival & Emergency Preparedness:

Self Defense & Weapons References:

History, Politics, and General Literature: