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Earl RansomAn Almanac

I keep the water running and the house warm without the grid

Ninety-three methods I've used on my own ridge to ride out a multi-day outage. One reader stayed warm on a single woodstove for nine days last February, and a buried barrel cellar runs about $60.

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93MOUNTAIN METHODS
9 daysone storm ridden
$60cellar cost
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Earl Ransom
When the power drops in the county, mine's the phone that ringsEarl Ransom · Boone, NC
First Dark Hour — What To Do The Minute The Power Quits
01 · First Dark Hour — What To Do The Minute The Power Quits
Water That Keeps Running
02 · Water That Keeps Running
Heat Without The Grid
03 · Heat Without The Grid
The Root Cellar Way
04 · The Root Cellar Way
I.
The manual

Everything I know, in one book

By the time you finish this book you'll be able to ride out a multi-day outage in comfort using cheap, fixable, low-tech methods your granddad would recognize.

93numbered methods, each with the materials, the steps and an honest note
14areas covered, each with its own numbered methods, from first dark hour — what to do the minute the power quits to doing it for the money it saves
115pages. Read it on any phone or computer, or print it for the kitchen table
What you get for $47
The manual — 93 methods, 14 sections$47
The 72-Hour Outage Road Map$27
The Water & Fuel Reserve Tracker$19
Earl's Cheap Sourcing Sheet$24
Generator & Solar Sizing Worksheet$27
Total value$144
$47$75launch price
SEE THE MANUAL · $47
115 pages · Instant access · Lifetime updates · 7-day refund
II.
The math

What it costs you now — and after.

Before — a typical year
Grid heating$900
Store produce$600
Canned goods bought$400
Generator fuel waste$300
Eggs and meat$500
Emergency gear retail$500
Annual$3,200
After — running the methods
Grid heating$0
Store produce$150
Canned goods bought$80
Generator fuel waste$120
Eggs and meat$180
Emergency gear retail$150
Annual$680
$2,520Kept: about $2,520 a year, at these numbers.

These are Earl's own tallies from his ridge — heating, food, and gear costs before and after the methods. Yours will vary by place.

III.
What's inside

Exactly what you get for $47.

93 numbered methods across 14 sections. Each one: the materials with current prices, the step-by-step, and an honest note on what it does and doesn't do. Pick the methods that fit your place — you don't have to do all of them.

First Dark Hour — What To Do The Minute The Power Quits — 8 methods

The in-order moves for the first fifteen minutes.

  1. 01The Fifteen-Minute Walk
  2. 02The Cold Box Countdown
  3. 03The One Breaker You Flip First
  4. 04Neighbor or Substation
+ 4 more in the book
Water That Keeps Running — 8 methods

Get, store, and move it when the pump is dead.

  1. 01The Gravity Head Tank
  2. 02The Hand Pump Piggyback
  3. 03Reading Your Well Depth
  4. 04The Spring House Principle
+ 4 more in the book
Heat Without The Grid — 8 methods

Stay warm on wood and stored heat, furnace off.

  1. 01The Woodstove That Pays For Itself
  2. 02Seasoned vs. Green — The Splinter Test
  3. 03The One-Room Retreat
  4. 04Thermal Mass In A Bucket
+ 4 more in the book
The Root Cellar Way — 8 methods

Hold a harvest with dirt, depth, and airflow.

  1. 01Cellar Or Buried Barrel
  2. 02The 55-and-Humid Rule
  3. 03What Stores And What Doesn't
  4. 04Sand-Boxing Carrots And Beets
+ 4 more in the book
Canning A Wall Of Food — 8 methods

Put up a year of meals, jar by jar.

  1. 01Water Bath vs. Pressure — Get It Right
  2. 02The Green Bean Wall
  3. 03Tomatoes Every Way
  4. 04Meat In A Jar
+ 4 more in the book
Light And Cooking When The Stove Won't Come On — 7 methods

Hot meals and clean light on any fuel.

  1. 01The Oil Lamp Comeback
  2. 02Cook On The Woodstove Top
  3. 03The Rocket Stove Build
  4. 04Propane Math That Doesn't Lie
+ 3 more in the book
Riding Out The Cold — 7 methods

Keep people, pipes, and animals safe in a freeze.

  1. 01Layer The Body, Not The Room
  2. 02The Warm Sleep Setup
  3. 03Drip To Keep The Pipes
  4. 04Thaw A Frozen Line Safely
+ 3 more in the book
Growing Food You Can Count On — 8 methods

A garden set to fill the cellar, not the salad bowl.

  1. 01Why The Deer Won That First Year
  2. 02The Storage-Crop Garden Plan
  3. 03Free Fertility From The Wood Ash
  4. 04Saving Seed That Comes True
+ 4 more in the book
Fixing What Breaks — 7 methods

Repair it yourself when no truck is coming.

  1. 01The Ten Tools That Fix Ninety Percent
  2. 02Sharpen Anything
  3. 03The Small Engine That Won't Start
  4. 04Stop The Leak, Save The Motor
+ 3 more in the book
Power You Make Yourself — 6 methods

Backup power sized to what you actually need.

  1. 01Size The Generator Right
  2. 02The Interlock Instead Of The Extension Cord
  3. 03Fuel That Stores
  4. 04The Small Solar Kit That Matters
+ 2 more in the book
Staying In Touch And Staying Safe — 6 methods

Know what's happening and keep the household secure.

  1. 01The Crank Radio Habit
  2. 02Keep The Phone Alive A Week
  3. 03The Family Meeting Plan
  4. 04Fire Watch In An Outage
+ 2 more in the book
Meat, Milk, And Eggs Off The Place — 6 methods

Raise a little protein the store can't touch.

  1. 01Six Hens And Steady Eggs
  2. 02Meat Birds In Eight Weeks
  3. 03The Rabbit Hutch Protein
  4. 04Butchering Without The Guesswork
+ 2 more in the book
Sanitation And Doctoring The Basics — 5 methods

Stay clean and healthy with the taps off.

  1. 01The No-Flush Toilet Plan
  2. 02Wash Up On A Bucket
  3. 03The Basic Household Medicine Shelf
  4. 04Laundry By Hand
+ 1 more in the book
Doing It For The Money It Saves — 1 methods

Source cheap and stack it so it pays back.

  1. 01Where Earl Buys It Cheap
IV.
Reader results

What people did with it.

★★★★★
Ice storm knocked us out nine days last February. Followed Earl's one-room retreat and the drip-the-pipes method — not one line burst and the family stayed warm on one stove.
— Wayne T., Sevierville, TN
★★★★★
The buried-barrel cellar cost me about sixty dollars and my potatoes and carrots kept clear through March. I quit throwing out sprouted produce.
— Donna R., Athens, OH
★★★★★
The generator sizing worksheet saved me from buying a monster I didn't need. Got the right unit, and Earl's fuel-storage bit meant it actually started when the grid went down.
Earl Ransom
V.
About the author

Earl Ransom

I'm Earl Ransom. I grew up in a hollow outside Boone, North Carolina, where my granddad kept a spring house, a root cellar in the hillside, and a woodstove that ran all winter. I spent thirty-odd years running heavy equipment and fixing whatever broke on other men's land. Then I bought forty acres of ridge, cut my own road in by hand, and built a cabin I still heat with wood I split myself. I've buried water lines in January and canned a wall of green beans. When the power drops in the county, mine's the phone that rings. This book is the how of it, written down.

VI.
Order

$47 once. No subscription. Yours forever.

Read it and try the methods. If it isn't worth the $47, tell me inside the 7-day window and I'll refund every cent. No hard feelings, no hoops to jump through.

🔒 Secure checkout · Visa · Mastercard · PayPal · 7-day refund

What you get for $47
The manual — 93 methods, 14 sections$47
The 72-Hour Outage Road Map$27
The Water & Fuel Reserve Tracker$19
Earl's Cheap Sourcing Sheet$24
Generator & Solar Sizing Worksheet$27
Total value$144
$47$75launch price
SEE THE MANUAL · $47
115 pages · Instant access · Lifetime updates · 7-day refund
VII.
Questions

Before you decide.

Do I need land or a homestead for this to be useful?

No. A good many of the methods — the first-dark-hour walk, water storage, staying warm, keeping the phone alive, safe backup power — work fine on a regular lot or even in town. The garden and livestock chapters are for those with the room, but nobody's required to use every one.

Is this going to cost me a fortune in gear?

That's the opposite of the point. Earl's whole way is cheap, fixable, low-tech stuff — barrels, oil lamps, hand pumps, a woodstove — bought used where he can. There's a whole bonus sheet on where he finds it cheap.

I'm not handy. Can I actually do these?

Most of them, yes. Earl writes one step at a time like he's standing next to you. Where a job really calls for a pro — like tying a generator into your house wiring — he says so plainly and tells you what conversation to have.

Is the electrical and generator stuff safe?

The book tells you the safe way and tells you where to stop and call a licensed electrician. Backup power done wrong can hurt people and linemen, and Earl doesn't pretend otherwise.

Does this give medical or financial advice?

No. The health and money chapters are just what Earl keeps on hand and how he saves — plain practice, not advice. For doctoring and money decisions, he tells you to see the right professional.

What form does the book come in?

It's a digital ebook you download and read on your phone, tablet, or computer, and you can print the checklists and trackers. You get it the minute you order.

Why is the price so low right now?

This is a launch price to get the book into folks' hands and gather honest feedback. The price goes up once the launch window closes — that's the plain truth of it.

Last call

The launch price closes soon

Right now it's $47 with all five bonuses thrown in. When the launch window closes, the price goes up. That's the plain truth of it.

SEE THE MANUAL · $47