When winter comes everyone must be equipped with winter survival skills. If you find yourself struggling now, can you imagine how our ancestors survived? Read on and find out how our ancestors survived the dreaded cold season.
7 Items Our Ancestors Have For Winter Survival
You may have wondered how our ancestors survived winter without power and other modern technologies that are providing us all the comfort today. Let's go back to the time when people had to come up with creative methods to stay warm and let the cold season pass by just like any other regular season does.
Basically, just like any preppers of today's generation, they prepared before winter arrived. But unlike, today's prepper who can easily come up with their essentials for a short period of time, our ancestors spent most of the warmer months preparing for the winter season. Let's look at 7 survival items our ancestors find absolutely necessary for winter survival.
I would say these are still essential today despite all the technological advancements we have at present.
1. Food
Food is the most important thing to have when it comes to survival. This would mean that during dry season our ancestors have already done their drying, and smoking process to preserve food for winter months. Here in my homestead, I’m doing all 2 preservation methods including canning for my produce for later use or to give them a longer shelf life. If you’re not in a homestead setting, processed food are readily available in groceries and supermarkets.
2. Firewood
Firewoods are essential not only in keeping the family warm but also in cooking. Cutting wood is a lot harder during winter season than during summer time. So our ancestors would take advantage of the dry season to stack firewood for winter. Even these days this practice is still applicable, no one would dare to go out and collect firewood when it’s already snowing outside.
3. Medicines
These are not the ones brought in pharmacies, these are homemade remedies. Herbs infusion, extracts and other natural remedies nature provides. For today’s generation, homemade remedies may only be seen and commonly used in a homestead setting, just like ours, but if you ask me I really find homemade remedies more helpful in preventing diseases (don't take my word for it, though, I'm no expert). Except for terminal illness, those really require expert medical attention.
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4. Blankets
Keeping your home warm was then a challenge, particularly a bigger home with plenty of rooms. Few really could afford a fireplace in each room, even if they needed one. So they’d warm the primary living area of the house leaving each door to the bedroom open. Whatever warmth managed to get inside any bedroom that's all they'd get.
The other thing they have are a pile of blankets. It was a common scene in every home to have a chest at the foot of the bed containing a pile of blankets stored during warmer weather that's very much useful when winter comes. Even today, I've got a pile of extra blankets here in my homestead, and I'm looking forward to adding to it year after year. Making DIY warm winter blankets has actually become one of my favorite pass time during winter months.
5. Candles
Making candles was a summertime task. They had to make them when the bees were dynamic, gathering pollen and creating honey. It simply means they made them during the dryer months of which there were plenty of flowers on the trees and in the fields. During winter, bees kept themselves hidden in their hives, living off the honey they made up in summer.
Collecting honey during summer is likewise collecting the beeswax. Collecting beeswax simply means it’s already time to make candles. I enjoy making my own candles and yes, I also have beeswax, so making candles here in my homestead is pretty easy.
During winter, bees kept themselves hidden in their hives, living off the honey they made up in summer. Collecting honey during summer is likewise collecting the beeswax. Collecting beeswax simply means it’s already time to make candles. I enjoy making my own candles and yes, I also have beeswax, so making candles here in my homestead is pretty easy.
6. Bed Warmers
Warming up the bed, before sleeping at night was always a smart thing to do. This was made possible by a bed warmer. To our ancestors, these are metal or copper-covered skillets with long handles. The container was loaded with rocks that had been warmed at the edge of the fire and afterward slid between layers of sheet material utilizing the long handle. This would warm the bed adequately.
7. Tools
Common tools our ancestors have were from blacksmithing. Iron and steel were forged together in the extreme heat. If you want to learn this skill you must know what you’re doing and always start with the basic of blacksmithing. Blacksmithing can be an amazing hobby and an important survival skill too.
Want to learn how to survive and thrive using the old ways of the Pioneers? Check out this video from My Home and Garden:
Our ancestors definitely have their own way of survival and we wouldn’t be here if they didn’t make it! These 7 items are pretty basic that even me here in my homestead always have a stockpile of these no matter what the weather is.
What winter survival items do you stockpile in your homestead? Let us know in the comments below?
Need help on how to make your homestead thrive during winter? Check out The Ultimate Winter Survival Skills For The Homestead!
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