The Practical Prepper

This week on our other blog, Self-Reliant Info, it's "Spring Break," where we pause to recap some of our most popular posts for newer readers. So, we're doing the same thing here on The Practical Prepper too.

Not only will this let you see what our most popular topics are, but I hope that it will inspire our readers to let me know what "gaps" in our material they'd like to see filled. Without further adieu, here are our top five posts, starting with the fifth most popular one:

#5. What are you preparing for?: This is one of our "foundational" posts about preparedness planning. Figuring out what types of disasters you're likely to face in your area is a critical early step. Doing so helps you plan more effectively. It can also give you focus, and keep you from feeling overwhelmed by a vague, generalized fear or dread (which can be paralyzing).

#4. Collecting and purifying water from natural sources: Before this post, we had presented some basics on water storage (which is actually our sixth most popular post). However, this post on collecting water from natural sources and purifying it was more popular. Actually you need to know and practice both, since water is one of the most critical things to address preparedness planning. Remember, you can only go 3 days without it!

#3. Catastrophe! Do you stay or go?: One of the most challenging decisions you may face related to your preparedness plans is figuring out when to shelter in place or evacuate. Of course, when a disaster happens, you may need to decide within moments. Thinking through a variety of situations beforehand will help. This post takes a look at how we look at many scenarios, in hopes that it will help you with your plans too.

#2. Financial preparedness: six tips on reducing debt: Many people don't necessarily see a relationship between debt and preparedness. However, you are more self-reliant when you have less (or no) debt. No debt means that you have more money to save or to spend on tangible preparedness materials… or it could mean that you can take a job that pays less but makes you happier. Anyway, this post discusses some basic on reducing and eliminating debt in your life.

#1. Becoming a Practical Prepper: Our most popular post here on Farm Dreams is the one that started it all. This is basically a synopsis of how our family got into prepping. Our hope is that it inspires our readers to forget about television shows on prepping; instead take it seriously and be as ready as you can for everyday disasters like severe weather, job loss, or financial upheavals.

So, that's our top five most popular posts here on Farm Dreams. Of course, you can check out all the rest of The Practical Prepper posts too. If there are topics that we haven't covered, but would like to read about, please let us know in the comments below. I can't promise to cover every topic, but we'll do what we can.

Also, if you like what you see here and want to find out more about improving your self-reliance, head over to Self-Reliant Info. Now's the perfect time to check out that site as we do our Spring Break recap!

Believing that preparedness and self-reliance are key to individual freedom, Atticus Freeman is the founder of the Self-Reliant Info blog, in addition to authoring The Practical Prepper weekly blog here on Farm Dreams. Thanks for reading!