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A wood-burning cookstove is a reliable choice for cooking AND heating your home! Visit Lehmans.com or our store in Kidron, Ohio to see our wide selection.[/caption]
Consider what tools provide the most bang for the buck for supplying basic needs. A wood cookstove, for example, not only heats the house, but it cooks and bakes food and provides hot water for laundry, dishes, and bathing. A non-electric clothes washer and a couple of drying racks can make one of the most time-consuming chores far quicker and easier. That’s a lot of benefits and sustainability from just a couple of items!
There are other things to consider. During a prolonged power outage, emergency personnel are busy helping those in need. The best thing to do is stay off the roads and out of their way. But that doesn’t mean you should stay home and ignore everyone else. It’s also a time to reach out to those around you who might need an extra hand or perhaps shelter: the elderly, the disabled, families with young children. These are people who would suffer the most without assistance.
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Oil lamps are a tried-and-true way to light your home, no electricity needed![/caption]
This is why it’s important to be on good terms with neighbors. The Plain People, including the Amish and Mennonites, know the value of community. They know no one can go it alone, and there is strength in numbers.
In many ways, preparing to be without power for a long time is merely learning to pare back to a simpler way of doing things. Rather than depending on complicated and far-away infrastructure, it’s often better to depend on one’s self and one’s neighbors to provide the essentials. True sustainability occurs when you can be comfortable even without modern essentials.
But a simple, sustainable lifestyle doesn’t come without planning, which is why it’s important to set up in advance the means to be comfortable – wood heat, non-electric lighting, human-powered tools, the skills needed to grow and preserve food, even off-grid refrigeration options. It’s more work than pushing buttons or shopping at the grocery store – but far more satisfying. And when those buttons don’t work and the grocery store is closed, you and your neighbors can still be warm and well-fed.
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