If you watch David Nash on Youtube, you know he’s a smart man with a ton of prepping experience. His new book 52 Prepper Projects: A Project a Week to Help You Prepare for the Unpredictable has a great assortment of do-it-yourself projects to learn self sufficiency. The book has great photos to demonstrate each project. Each project is clearly explained.
Think of the book as a smorgasbord. Pick and choose the projects you want. As David says at the end of the book, it’s not about the specific projects, it’s about learning to become self sufficient. It’s about the journey.
Over the years, I’ve done some of these projects in various forms with varying degrees of success and can say those work. I’m familiar with the concept behind others. Even with over 30 years of prepping experience, there are many projects that are new to me.
A few of the projects I’ve done, but didn’t really like. Pemmican, icky, yucky, poo. I know it was the staple of the American Indian and Frontiersman, and I’d certainly make and eat it to survive in the wild if need be, as it’s a crucial way to preserve fat. Might I recommend his project of making Sourdough Bread instead? If you want to go all Bradford Angier, you can bake bread on a stick.
Quite frankly, some of the projects scare the crap out of me. I don’t feel qualified to make and use Sugardine Antiseptic Solution. What the sugar would be up to would worry me. Cheese has always scared me too. Given this, I must quote David, “Traditionally cheese making was a way to store milk. It is much simpler than I expected, and was the project that broke the confidence barrier. Once I made my own cheese and said, “I can do this,” I was much more willing to try more complex projects.”
The projects are all something a suburban prepper can do. Most projects can be done by an urban prepper. I’ve wondered about Bees myself in the city. Would that be a no-go? What if they stung a neighbor?
To give you a flavor of the projects:
– Making A Ceramic Drip Water Filter
– Making A Movable Chicken Coop
– Food Dehydration
– Storing Food with Mylar Bags
– Making Dakin’s Antiseptic Solution (Sounds less scary than Sugar!)
– Wheat Grinding (by hand)
– Making a Raised Bed Garden
– Wheat Berry Blender Pancakes
– Sprouting Wheat and Beans
– Making A Top Bar Beehive
– Pool Shock For Water Purification
– Bean Flour
– Homemade Jerky
– Making Sourdough Bread
– Making a Knife from an Old File
One of the projects isn’t super prepper practical, making a high pressure steam to weedeater engine conversion system, but it’s way cool and a neat learning experience. David warns us not to blow ourselves up. I’ll need to confront the cheese before tackling that one.
52 Prepper Projects: A Project a Week to Help You Prepare for the Unpredictable gets my highest recommendation. Buy it. Add it to your prepper library.
Charlie Palmer -author The Prepper Next Door
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