The Provident Prepper: A Common-Sense Guide to Preparing for Emergencies [Paperback] Kylene Jones and Jonathan Jones

Highly recommend! These people are amazing! I love their approach and they don’t even advertise their book. That speaks volume to their character. Basically everything in the book is online but I would much rather have the book in case I lost power due to any emergency situation. The information can be a bit overwhelming if you are new to planning for an emergency situation, but just do a little at a time and eventually you’ll get there.
I like the writers approach. Some people that teach prepping or planing do it in a way that induces fear, but the the Providenal Prepper is simply trying to help and encourage you to have a plan in a emergency situation in a very calming way.

The Practical Prepper
Book Review by Cynthia J. Koelker, MD

Did you ever wish you could find a single book with common-sense prepping advice you could actually implement?

The Practical Prepper is just that, a must-have read for both neophytes and seasoned preppers alike. The writing is down-to-earth, easy to understand, with sections logically organized according to expected needs. Thus delightful book includes chapters on food and water storage, medical concerns, emergency heating, lighting, and cooking, sanitation, communication, fuel storage, shelter, and much more. It is not a wilderness survival guide, but rather a realistic approach to what a normal family can and should so to weather a crisis and safeguard loved ones.

Throughout the book the authors offer multiple solutions to common problems, recognizing that one answer cannot fit every situation or budget. For example, Chapter 8 discusses “Water Disinfection and Purification,” and includes sections on boiling, pasteurization, chlorine, calcium hypochlorite, iodine, solar water disinfection, as well as numerous types of filters. Costs are discussed as well, allowing you to choose whether to invest in a $1500 Katadyn Expedition filter, or perhaps a $25 LifeStraw Personal Water Filter. I especially enjoyed the discussion of “Emergency Cooking,” which stresses safety and inventiveness. Who’d have thought you could make an oven from a paper box or an inner tube?

Lest prepping for every contingency appears an overwhelming task, just get started is the message of Chapter 1. No one can accomplish it all in a day. The book makes it easy to take small, practical steps toward improving your odds of survival should disaster strike. Devoting only half an hour a week to emergency preparedness will put you far ahead of the unprepared masses. But the authors don’t want to leave your neighbors in the dark. Community is important now and will be so in the future. An entire chapter is devoted to moving beyond your immediate family to helping your local community prepare.
Another major focus of The Practical Prepper is organization. It does little good to have a dozen flashlights if you can’t find even one. Where are your legal documents? Where is your hand-crank radio? How should your food be organized? Again the authors offer many ideas from which you can pick and choose to fit your personal goals and budget.

Lastly, as a physician let me draw attention to Chapter 11 entitled “Medical – The Doctor Is Out.” This section is a nice summary of concerns that must be addressed when no medical care is available, and includes discussions of prescription medications, first-aid supplies, over-the-counter preparations, keeping a personal medical information record, antibiotics, quarantine, and more. Educating yourself is also stressed, from CPR to Community Emergency Response Teams (CERT). Everyone would do well to heed their common sense advice, then consider moving to more advanced training once the basics are in place.

In summary, you can’t go wrong acquiring this handy survival manual. Consider it an investment in your future and that of your children, when (not if) a crisis arises.

Given the daily headlines, the need to prepare (prep) is evident. And there is a cottage industry out there offering to advise you and your family on how to do so.

Not all are worth reading, but The Practical Prepper: A Common Sense Guide to Preparing for Emergencies is worth getting.

The authors, parents of young children and husband and wife team Kylene and Jonathan Jones, have put a lot of thought into what prepping really involves, and their hard work and careful thought is evident in this store of knowledge of the core knowledge required to know the essence of prepping for your family.
Prepper books fall into one of two broad categories: those that speak to other preppers and those that speak to the larger community. The Practical Prepper, A Common Sense Guide to Emergency Preparedness by Kylene and Johathan Jones, is the latter.

For most of us when we look at this cottage industry of prepper books, however, it is difficult to separate the Biblical wheat (nutritious food or valuable, worthwhile prepping) from the chaff (scaly protective casing that is not nutritious and is worthless prepping). The Practical Prepper offers nutritious, worthwhile, common sense, easily done prepping instruction, plans, strategies, and steps you and your family can take to prepare for, cope with, survive and triumph over natural and manmade adversity.

What I especially liked about this work is that it really is practical prepping as it says in the title. I found examples from my own life in every chapter.
For ease of use and quick reference, it is divided into the following chapters: 1. Where Do I Begin?, 2. What Are the Odds?, 3. Survive or Thrive, 4. Family Emergency Plan, 5. Survival Kits, 6. Communication, 7. Water Storage, 8. Water Disinfection and Purification, 9. Sanitation, 10. Designer Food Storage Plans, 11. Food Storage, 12. Fuel Safety and Storage, 13. Emergency Lighting, 14. Emergency Heating, 15. Emergency Cooking, 16. Shelter, 17. Keeping Cool, 18. Home Protection and Security, 19. Personal Safety, 20. Medical, 21. Community, 22. Financial and Legal, 23. So What Now?

For those of you who are just beginning to get into prepping, you have much worthwhile wheat in each chapter. And even for those of you who have been at this for decades, as I have, there is much worthwhile wheat in each chapter. This is a guidebook to how to be self-reliant when disaster strikes, because if you can get past the first 72 hours, you are in very, very good shape.

As the authors say in Chapter 1. Where Do I Begin? "While prepping is important, we recommend that you always strive to keep balance in your life. Do not allow fear to motivate your actions. Preparing and making steady progress is critically important, but take time to enjoy the present while preparing for the future." That common sense approach is why this book matters.

Many prepper books and websites, with the media piling on, use fear as their reason to prepare. This is wrong, and the authors establish early on that common sense, not fear, should motivate your prepping planning, activities, and family time.

Chapter 2. What are the Odds? Offers resources to help you identify the risks and hazards you face in your neighborhood and region, as well as the basic steps you can take to be ready: family emergency and communication plan; food and water storage; survival kits (home, vehicle, work); backup (water, sewer, natural gas, power); and emergency saving account. Take care of those and you are on your way.

Using a flow chart, they provide an excellent matrix (event, probability, consequence = risk score of the threat matrix (natural: earthquakes, tsunami, hurricanes, winter and summer storms, landslides, heat, tornado, etc.); manmade (terrorism, pandemic and epidemic, atomic, biological, nuclear, chemical, hazmat, electromagnetic pulse (EMP), civil unrest, economic collapse, house fire, debt, societal collapse, etc.). Most of these you will know, but it helps to quantify them so you know what to concentrate on when you create a plan, supplies and strategy for your family.

In Chapter 2 they also describe what could happen (much of it not pleasant to think about) in a matter of fact way. They describe what you can do about it (also often not easy to think about because it involves work) in very practical terms. As importantly, it is written in Plain English so it is a good read. Here is a sample:

· Consider purchasing gold and silver coins after you have built your food stores.
· Practice the art of provident living and self-reliance. Learn to work. Be wise, frugal, and prudent. Get out of debt and live on less than you earn.
· Learn self-defense skills and acquire weapons of choice. Secure your home.
· Work on becoming physically fit and healthy. Access to medical care and medications may be limited. If you have disabilities, explore options and develop a reasonable plan in the event medical care is unavailable.

Among the dangers they highlight is a house fire. "The most common disaster is a house fire. One in every 320 households reports a fire annually." Having experienced our own house on fire in 2003, I agree. (See: http://poetslife.blogspot.com/search/label/It%20Was%20Nothing)

Another Plain English bit of wisdom is found in Chapter 2 is, "Your best teacher is real-life learning experiences. For example, turn off your power for a few days and see how prepared you really are." That's stone, hard fact. My wife's family has an orchard in West Virginia. They get week long power failures. They know how to cope with it.

Granted, my brother-in- law was Delta Force besides operating the orchard, but most of his survival skills are from surviving for years on the orchard, well removed from any assistance. Most Americans live under the illusion that power and services are always on.

A power failure teaches them otherwise, and practicing for that eventuality is truly learning the lessons of history, even if most Americans choose to pretend otherwise. If American only knew their own history, they would know that The Practical Prepper is a continuation of our long historical struggle against man-made and natural disasters, not an aberration as the main stream media likes to posit.

Chapter 3. Survive or Thrive, Loving Life opens with:
"You have just completed a comprehensive evaluation of the possible hazards you may face in your future. You have a reasonable plat to reduce those risk factors, and we are going to explore exactly how to execute that plan. But first we will discuss the most important aspect of that plan: your personal attitude, resilience, and emotional fortitude."

"Quite frankly we dislike the word survive. By definition, to survive is to continue to live or exist in spite of danger or hardship. The word gives little hope of a bright future. Our goal is to thrive in the face of adversity. We gain confidence through our preparations and fully expect to embrace the challenges ahead and find joy in the journey. Bad things happen --- it is an inevitable part of life. But we are determined to thrive in the face of adversity."

Amen. That is a core value in my own life. In the multiple near-death experiences I've had, I've survived because I refuse to die, and then always make it better after the survival experience. I never thought about it, but the three "Thriving Through a Disaster" phases they list are spot on: denial, deliberation and decisive moment.

For example, when fifteen lumpen proletariat brought down baseball bats on my skull in Georgetown, in Washington, D.C. the night before Marion Barry, a former DC Mayor went on trial, through my blood and sweat I saw my wife and son. I made the decision in nanoseconds that this was real, I was not going down, I would see my wife and son again, and I went mad until I had 14 of the 15 down (according to the waiters at the restaurant where it happened).

Most people think this will never happen to them. Many told me afterwards, "I don't go in those neighborhoods." Until it happens to you, why would you think it can happen? The media calls it a "random act of urban violence." But it is random...not rare.

The same applies to any man made or natural disaster.
No one thinks it will happen...until it happens.

I've been through my share so I have no difficulty accepting that it can happen...and fast.

I believe this knowledge should be shared with children, because sadly our schools do not. And Kylene and Jonathan agree. They have an entire section in Chapter 2 called, "Preparing Children to Thrive in a Disaster."
That is the best thing you can do for your children, and their practical steps in this 345 page tome will assist you.

Chapter 4, Family Emergency Plan: We Can Make it Together, lists how to create a family emergency plan. They are clear about what I've observed for years: this is a parental responsibility that will pay off when the event happens, and it is a thankless task like many thankless parental tasks.
They cover all the basics: primary meeting place, secondary meeting place, out-of-area meeting place, higher ground meeting place (i.e. off the flood plain), evacuation plan, money, the map, communication and communication devices, vital documents, prep lists, things to grab, precious items, transportation, emergency shelter options, and the family emergency action plan.

Now, although this all seems obvious, as with so much of this information, this family emergency plan has uses you cannot imagine. For example, an active shooter at a mall, school, play of employment, or at a random setting. All of these tools would have been useful had there been an active shooter at my son's school, rather than a sociopath who sought social media attention. (See: http://poetslife.blogspot.com/2014/03/active-shooter-bomb-threat-of-just.html)

Chapter 5: Survival Kits: Living out of a Backpack presents the reality that in order to survive, you need certain essential elements in your backpack...or, more importantly for any parent, in the backpacks that will keep your offspring comfortable and alive. Water, high protein food, shelter, sanitation (too often overlooked), sleep, comfort, and all the things that makes living possible when living is threatened.

They include a section on the "Workplace Survival Kit, "Vehicle Emergency Kit," "Emergency Survival Kit," and the "School Survival Kit" "Pet Survival Kit," "Young Child Comfort Kit," "Infant Survival Kit," "Wilderness Survival Kit," "Family Survival Kit," "Fire Kit," and "First-Aid Kit," All are critical but often neglected. Here, each lists the essential that need to be included.
Chapter 6: Communication, Now We're Talking explores the hardware (AM/FM radio, NOAA Weather Radio, shortwave radio, Internet, two-way communication, phones, cell phones, family radio service, general mobile radio service, citizen band radio, amateur radio, ), and the process (power, equipment protection), and the communication action plan.

Chapter 7: Water Storage, Got Water? Details the basics of water purity and storage. My preference is water bricks (See: http://poetslife.blogspot.com/2013/09/waterbricks-for-emergencies.html )

Chapter 8: Water Disinfection and Purification, Is it Safe to Drink explains exactly that. There are many dangers in contaminated water that we are unaware of due to our easy access to pure water. They have a water purification and disinfection business and are experts in this area. They elucidate those dangers and explain how to prevent them.

Chapter 9: Sanitation: What is that Smell is a detailed discussion of one of the most overlooked areas of prepping: sanitation. They cover personal sanitation, showers and baths (gravity, garden, sponge, tubs, and containers), human waste disposal, bucket toilets, port-a-potties, bedside commodes, potty chairs, chemical toilets, composting toilets, septic systems, deep pit latrines, solid waste disposal, pest control, basic sanitation supplies, laundry, and a sanitation action plan.

Chapter 10: Designer Food Storage Plans: What's for Dinner covers the fact that just-in-time food delivery a wonder of modern life, until it is interrupted. You had better have certain kinds of food, and the right amount, on hand if that happens.

Chapter 11: Food Storage: How and Where explores the best storage methods and space for foods supplies.

Chapter 12: Fuel Safety and Storage, Come on, Baby, Light My Fire catalogs the kinds and do's and don'ts of fuel storage and use.

Chapter 13: Emergency Lighting, I Can See Clearly Now presents the wonders of light, its sources, types, benefits, and uses.

Chapter 14: Emergency Heating, Baby, It's Cold Outside explores the methods, uses, and impacts of a variety of heat sources and the dangers of the lack of heating (hypothermia, frostbite, etc.) and how to maintain heat when the power is off.

Chapter 15: Emergency Cooking, Now Power, No Problem presents the practical steps and alternatives you can take during crisis cooking.

Chapter 16: Shelter, Come In out of the Storm rethinks a basic we take for granted: shelter, a roof over our heads during extraordinary circumstances. It examines multiple shelter situations: disaster-related home repairs, sheltering-in-place, self-imposed isolation, sheltering against radiation exposure, portable shelter, and bug out locations.

Chapter 17: Keeping Cool, I'm Melting explores another basic of modern life we take for granted: air conditioning and the results of not having it readily available, especially for the vulnerable...the elderly and special needs people.

Chapter 18: Home Protection and Security, Safe at Home examines the wider world of keeping your home safe in your neighborhood. Specifically, it looks at operational security, know your neighborhood, home safety, organizing your domicile, home intruder inspection, home security, home appearance, lighting, sound, deterrents, landscape, doors, windows, secure valuables, tips for apartment dwellers, and Creating a home protection and security action plan.

Chapter 19: Personal Safety, Don't Mess with Me analyzes the particulars of keeping yourself protected. It looks at self-defense training, child safety and self-defense training, weapons, command voice, firearms, and creating a personal safety and security action plan.

Chapter 20: Medical, the Doctor is Out examines the complex matter of health. It examines physical health preparation, protecting your health during a crisis, health education, , creating a current medical information sheet, first-aid supplies, general storage of medications, over-the-counter medications, antibiotics, medication storage and shelf-life, hydration, medical equipment and supplies, self-quarantine, bringing it home, and creating a medical action plan.

Chapter 21: Community, We're All in This Together opens with the line, "No matter how well we prepare for possible hazards, if our community is not prepared, we are in trouble." This is a core value for all prepping and one that bothers me most about many prepper websites, blogs, forums, and preppers themselves. Many preppers posit that they are totally "self-sufficient." That is impossible. We connected. We make it or fail individually, but also as part of a family, group, church, army, corporation, or nation.

Kylene and Jonathan recognize this truth by quoting John Donne's famous line, "No Man is an island" and then prove it. "The benefits of the group might mean the difference between life and death" they state. Having just this month depended on state police, first responders, nurses, doctors, technicians and others to keep my 18-year old Eamon alive when he went from a horrible accident to an intensive care unit, I would have to agree. (See: http://poetslife.blogspot.com/2014/07/i-got-phone-call-every-parent-fears.html)

They examine how closely we are tied in sections examining: successful communities, relationship building, formal neighborhood organization, the first meeting, identifying group needs and resources, follow-up meeting, mock disaster, someone has to standup, community emergency response teams, and creating the community relationship action plan.

Chapter 22: Financial and Legal, Getting It all in Order analyzes the legal and financial aspects of prepping. It is divided into the following sections: organization, finances, building financial security, legal, and creating a financial and legal action plan.

Chapter 23: So Now What closes the book with a request to spread the word and encourage others to take up prepping while there is still time.
Kylene and Jonathan are experienced, socially-savvy preppers. Before they wrote this book, they have posted for years at their prepper blog (http://www.yourfamilyark.org/yfa-blog) and (The Provident Pepper http://theprovidentprepper.org/the-practical-prepper/, Our Family Garden Container Potato Harvest 2011 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IuLCmXmfmHg).

Visit their prepper website and blog and you will see even more practical suggestions for how to prepare to survive whatever comes our way. Like the book, their social media is positive, practical and prudent.

I wholeheartedly recommend The Practical Prepper to anyone who wants to know how to prep and for those who have a deep knowledge of the field. When I worked on a biohazard detection system to identify anthrax back in 2003, we created a "store of knowledge" manual that included everything anyone 50 years in the future would need to know about how it worked.

Practical Prepper is a "store of knowledge" for prepping. By using it judiciously, you will dramatically increase your chances of being around 50 years from now, and you will still find it useful then.

The author has a clear, practical approach to emergency preparedness. Much of the work in making emergency plans are presented in simple steps and with the use of planning tables and forms.

My only disappointment is in the publisher's poor binding that caused several pages to begin to separate from the binding and with continued use the pages will soon be completely loose.

INITIAL THOUGHTS
I totally admit to being really curious about this book. Will it read like a dystopic/apocalyptic fictional story, or will it have real survival techniques? I also remember reading an Interview with author Mike Mullin of the Ashfall Series who states he actually used this type of book to make his post-apocalyptic series more realistic and accurate. The tragedy that triggers off the post apocalyptic scenario in his book was the Yellowstone Volcano erupting.

MY REVIEW
The cover image depicts a small house being "protected" by a strong looking pair of hands.
Three "incidents" are represented on the top right side of the cover in small circles, they are Hurricane, Fire and Flooding. There is also a sub title of "A Common Sense Guide To Prepardeness".
I totally admit to being fascinated in the dystopian and post apocalyptic genres in fiction as many people seem to be these days. There is also the constant threats of terror attacks and such that people worry about too. So I think it's inevitable that you would raise questions such as What if something awful happened that stopped transport & communication etc. I think this way of preparedness is all the more prevalent in America than here in the UK. In the UK we all seem to wander around with a "it'll never happen over here" attitude.
The book is one that I'd say should be on everyone's book shelf as a reference book, along with a medical reference book too.
As I have said this book is probably deemed to be more relevant to the US and the natural disasters that occur there but who knows what could happen? In the UK we seem to be having more and more crazy weather conditions.
The book suggests many scenarios and provides actions to the scenarios as well as things you can do in "preparedness" to prevent such a scenarios from impacting you and your family so much.
Some of the idea's can be implemented into your regular way if life, such as growing your own fruit and vegetable's. Hey! we could all save money by growing our own. It's just finding the time and space to do so.
The book also suggests keeping animals, such as chicken for their eggs and meet and maybe pigs and goats. Of course that only works if you have space and you're allowed to keep animals at your property.
Another use of the things you grown mentioned in the book is a bartering system. If money becomes a useless item than things you don't have and need could be bartered for with your own home grown food items.
The laws would most likely change to what is called "Marshall Law" where the "Army" could take the pace of the police. If items become scarce there could be looting and violence. The book suggests arming yourself (a gun or bow and arrows) or and learning to shoot to both kill animals for food (using bow and arrow) and using a bow and arrow or gun for self defense.
The book covers how to find drinkable water or how to purify the water you can find to be able to drink it.
There's sections on medicines, both keeping a supply of those you need and or substituting with naturally grown items that can be used for common ailments.
There are also lists of things you perhaps would think of, like pet food or food for any livestock you may have.
I found the book a fascinating, informative read. Yet at the same time a little scary thinking of all the things that can go wrong in the world and the realisation of how many things we take for granted on a daily basis. Life would certainly be a lot harder for example without water on tap, or central heating in the winter, or cooking without electricity or gas.
Having said that Kylene And Jonathan have done this "preparedness" and could live fairly well and survive most disasters.
Kylene and Jonathan also suggest getting together with some like minded people so that you could exist in your own small community, and share the work that needs to be done as well as having a perhaps wider skill range. More people = Less Work. More People = More Skills.
So did I enjoy the book? Yes I did Would I recommend the book? Yes, it's a book that you would want to keep and could dip in and out of for "normal" living too. Would I read another book by Kylene & Jonathan? Yes I think I would, even though this one is super comprehensive. Would I read another Prepper book? I'd certainly check others out too. It would be interesting to read a Prepper book wrote with tips etc for scenario's in a UK setting too.

If you can't figure out how to survive in just about any situation from this book I just can't imagine. It's a down to earth read. Not over your head or outlandish. Solid info.

This was used as a complete guide for going off the grid

One of the best reference books out there for those interested in preparing for future hardships. References to the authors’ website and YouTube channel provide even more valuable resources. Highly recommended.

My friend had this book and I borrowed it.
Now I wanted to have my own.
Great book to study and prepare for emergency.

I grew up in a home with a very prepared mother who was always storing water, toilet paper, and "you name it" in our pantry, under our beds. I understood the importance of personal preparedness and emergency supplies. Still, I didn't know the deeper ins and outs of home storage or water purification. The Practical Prepper looked awfully daunting at over 300 pages, but once I dove in I found myself easily gliding through it all and soaking up the practical advice within. This book has websites for research, vignettes that illustrate different types of people, spreadsheets to help you plan your 72 hour kit and photos of the essentials.

I learned a lot and the authors really got me thinking about what would occur in the event of a natural disaster or war related threat and how my family would cope. I also truly enjoyed stories of canned goods that have stood the test of time in a sunken ship. Even for the most skeptical storer, this book is a must have! I do wish there was a list of supplies discussed at the end of each chapter because I found myself making mental lists and wanting to write things down as I read. It would help to have a shopping list or simple checklist for those of us who like to see things laid out and ready to mark. Otherwise, the Practical Prepper was the best book on preparedness I have read thus far. I would recommend purchasing it!