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Diesel/Kerosene Stoves at Star & Bullock Hardware – Available for immediate shipping! This may have been the coolest product I ever found over years of weekly Prepping 101 columns. I first discovered them back in 2016, and over the next few months explored everything from baking to canning with them. So for this reboot of [...]

Some things in the prepping world are pretty obvious. You have to just go do them. If you want to not go to bed at 6pm every night in the winter, it might be a good idea to think about some lights. Food? Some people (idiots), think they can live off the land. Water? Eh, [...]

As I explained last week, in this iteration of Prepping 101 I plan initially to go through topics that I covered somewhat piecemeal originally. A big one of those is cooking. Because as I discovered new ideas and the associated products, and educated myself as to the options out there for cooking off grid, I [...]

This is my second installment in two weeks on stovetop baking. As promised, this week we take a look at a variety of kerosene stoves that I run with diesel fuel, using ovens made for the stovetop. It is not by accident that propane has become ubiquitous in camp stoves, because propane is never smokey and regulating the burn is easy with modern equipment. The problem is, propane requires a pressurized tank to store it, and by the gallon, propane is two to three times the cost per BTU of gasoline and diesel. Of gasoline and diesel, diesel is safer and easier to store, and of stoves that will burn diesel, the wick varieties are easier to control, and they don’t need pumping.

My whole paradigm on cooking has changed since starting this column. I was like most Americans. When it comes to off the grid cooking, propane was the way to go. 2nd to that was white gas, otherwise known as Coleman Fuel. What I have come to understand is that from a survival perspective, both of those fuels will be extremely rare. I have discovered wood burning “Rocket Stoves” for prior articles, and my latest fascination is with stoves like you’ll see this week that were made for kerosene. As I have explained in past weeks, these stoves burn regular gaspump diesel just as clean as kerosene, which is getting harder and harder to find, especially at a reasonable price. Diesel has to meet new EPA standards for sulfur emissions, and that has made it almost indistinguishable from kerosene. Diesel does not produce flammable fumes, and if you toss a match into a puddle of diesel, the match will go out. If you are storing fuel for the collapse, diesel is your best option, but you do need stoves for cooking and heaters for heating that are specifically designed for kerosene to burn it in a useful way.

I have discovered in writing this column that Americans have become victims of convenience. Propane stoves are probably the best example of this from a survival perspective. We have all grown up with propane stoves for any type of outdoor cooking. They burn clean and never smoke, but for survival, where all the fuel we [...]

The word “forever” doesn’t compute in the American consumer market. We are a disposable society. But after the coming collapse, you better darn have some resources that could theoretically take care of your needs, “forever.” This week I am looking at some cutting edge survival lighting technology, and it just so happens they were made at the turn of the last century. Standard Oil Company was pushing their new “kerosene
fuel at that time, hoping to replace whale oil where natural gas could not be piped, and they came out with a newly patented product called the “center draft lamp.”

My research of late has taken me back to the subject of heating for the winter. About this time last year I reviewed the US Military H-45 stove, which burns diesel and gasoline, and at full tilt, it is a bit much of a stove to handle, and it consumes a good deal of fuel. If you already burn home heating oil to heat your house in the winter, it is an emergency heater you should take a look at. But for long term survival, where every ounce of fuel counts, there are some better options.

My approach to prepping has always been about harnessing resources. Even the most basic needs in our lives are about using the resources at our disposal. This could be the money you have available to put food away. My approach has always been to figure out calories per dollar, on anything you plan to acquire. [...]