Tiny Steps, Big Resilience: A Mailbag Of Real-World Prep

Propane Adapter- https://tinyurl.com/sak4u678

Thermal Camera- https://tinyurl.com/5djj4kbr

A nor’easter dumped inches by the hour up north, and it sparked a flood of listener questions about practical preparedness. We took the hint and opened the mailbag, digging into what really saves money, reduces risk, and keeps dinner on the table when the grid blinks.

First up: propane without the sticker shock. We compare one‑pound canisters to 20‑pound tanks, explain safe extension hose setups, and walk through refilling methods for those compact bottles—plus the gauges, over‑pressure valves, and simple precautions that make it low‑drama and high‑value. Then we shift indoors with a smart win for home heating: a thermal camera that clips to your phone, revealing drafty windows, leaky outlets, and insulation gaps so you can target fixes and burn less fuel all winter.

Cooking off-grid doesn’t have to be smoky guesswork. We break down rocket stoves that sip twigs for fast, focused heat, the steady reliability of charcoal cookers, and why operational security matters when flames and food smells carry across the neighborhood. We also tackle one of the toughest challenges: getting a skeptical partner on board. The strategy is simple and kind—frame prepping as insurance, start with tiny, visible wins like a water filter or an extra pack of chicken for the freezer, and let everyday convenience prove the point.

We wrap with big news: we’re teaching Run Hide Fight at Prepper Camp 2026 in Mill Spring, North Carolina. The schedule repeats across days so you can plan around other classes, and tickets are easier on the wallet when you don’t wait. If you value common‑sense preparedness—smarter fuel choices, tighter homes, and calm, repeatable habits—you’ll feel right at home here.

Enjoy the episode? Subscribe, share with a friend who grills, and leave a quick review to help more people find practical prepping that actually works.

https://augasonfarms.com?sca_ref=9315862.VpHzogdDNu

Transcript

Storm Recap And Setup

SPEAKER_00 0:02

You are listening to the Common Sense Practical Prepper. Monitored by Duck Date. The real Duck Date. It fixes everything except that decision. Good evening, Mr. and Mrs. America. From border to border, coast to coast, and all ships at sea. Here is your host, Keith.

Mailbag Introduction

Propane Cost Savings Strategy

Thermal Camera Phone Adapter

Refilling One-Pound Cylinders

Off-Grid Cooking Options

OPSEC While Cooking Outside

Getting Partners On Board

Prepper Camp Announcement

Tickets And Schedule Details

Closing And Thanks

SPEAKER_01 0:21

Everybody, welcome back to the Common Sense Practical Prepper Podcast. This is Keith, February the 23rd, 2026. And I've been meaning to get to some emails. So tonight, this is going to be a mailbag episode. My thoughts out to the folks in the Northeast that got hammered by that nor'easter or cyclone bomb or whatever the heck they call it. Philadelphia, New York, two to three inches of snow per hour. Some areas up there, 26 inches of snow. Now here in Central Virginia, we lucked out, did not get cold enough for any snow to stick, big heavy flakes, and it melted almost right away. Now, if the temperature had been about five degrees colder, it'd be a different story. But we certainly lucked out. And hopefully, this is going to be the end of this crazy, nasty winter weather. But Mother Nature might have other ideas in mind. So let's go over some emails. So Richard down in Texas writes me about that ice storm in 2021, the one that left a lot of people dead. Remember, don't run generators inside your house. He used to stock up on the one-pound cans, the small, most of the time they're green, the ones that you screw into your little Coleman camp grill. So instead, he got a four-foot extension to attach to the 20-pound cylinders. The 20-pound cylinders are the larger ones like you put onto your grill. So a two-pack of the smaller canisters cost him$13 in Texas. A new propane-filled tank, like at Home Depot or Lowe's, will cost you$60. So$6.50 a can for one pound or$60 for 20 pounds. So you do the math. So he has a half dozen tanks, he barbecues a lot. So obviously, none of it goes to waste. Now I really want some good barbecue. And so if you just run the math, it is much more economical to get a couple of your larger 20-pound cylinders and then use the adapter, the forefeit adapter, to tie into your heater or your grill or whatever's going on. So the next email comes from Brian up in New Hampshire. So he was talking about home heating. And I was talking about this drafty window that I have in the office. And I'll put the link in the show notes, but I had no idea there was a little adapter that you can click on to your iPhone, and it's like a little thermal camera. So you can use this device instead of going on Amazon or Walmart and trying to purchase a true handheld thermal camera. This little thing attaches to your cell phone and you're able to view where your heat is escaping, or I guess how airtight your particular room happens to be. So I'll put that link in the show notes, and it's certainly a lot less expensive than the regular old handheld cameras. And he also brought up the propane cylinder idea. So you can get the little one-pound canisters like we've talked about, you can get the 20-pound like we've talked about. So it's an adapter you can fill your smaller canisters from the 20-pound cylinder for convenience sake. So let's say you want to go camping, you have the 20-pound cylinder. Oh, I'm only going away for the weekend. So you go ahead and you can fill and reuse the one-pound cylinders as opposed to having to purchase them every time and throw them in the trash, they end up going to the landfill or wherever they end up going. Now I know I've seen the adapter, and you can put it, you can put the 20-pound cylinder like in a little cradle. So you flip it upside down and you have the adapter, then you take your empty one-pound cylinder and you can drop it in there and fill it up. So again, just like the previous email, it's very economical. And they make some of the one-pound canisters, I think they're called keg. So they're specifically designed to be refilled. And I think they have like an over-pressure valve, so you can pull on that to make sure you're not going to overfill the canisters. And also the adapter that hooks onto the 20-pound cylinder has a little gauge, so yellow and red, so you can see when you're when you're getting too close, because you certainly don't want to overfill or over-pressurize any cylinder, regardless if it's full of flammable liquid or flammable gas. So, Brian, thank you very much for that email. So, a couple other emails. So, Sarah from Ohio, she goes, Hey Keith, love the pajamas episode. If the power is out for an extended period of time, what is my go-to way to cook without electricity or without gas? She has a camp stove, but fuel can be limited. So two things come to mind immediately. One is a rocket stove, and there are plenty of DIY rocket stoves out there, bricks, cinder blocks, but there are plenty of commercially manufactured or commercially made rocket stoves out there. You can just do a Google search or check on Amazon. Some are kind of pricey, but most of them are not. And they look kind of funny, but you just take a small amount of wood or little twigs or wood scraps, you put it in the little chamber, superheats the fuel, forces the flame up through, for the lack of a better word, a little chimney, and it comes out the top. So it burns very hot, very quick, but with minimal fuel. And again, you can search Amazon or other sites. There are tons of them out there. So that is certainly an option. And we can't forget the old classic charcoal grill. Use briquettes. I recall growing up we had the Weber grill, a couple different kinds of Weber's. Buddy mine has one of those big green egg grills, and he swears by that. He cooks a lot on that grill, smokes a lot of meat, and he absolutely loves that. Now they're kind of pricey, but he absolutely loves that one. You can always have like a little campfire around your fire pit. You can always cook over that, but it's certainly not mobile. Wherever your little fire pit is in your backyard, that's where it's going to be. And as you get into extended situations, do you really want to be out there in the middle of your yard as far as operational security? Because folks will see the fire, they'll see the smoke, they'll smell the bacon, and to realize that you are the person that's cooking breakfast. So, Mike in Texas, another email from folks in Texas says, Keith, my wife rolls her eyes when I talk to her about prepping. How do we get loved ones on board without causing a divorce? So, Mike, here's my advice for that. Start small, start tiny. Tell your wife that it's just like insurance. This is like car insurance. And again, you purchase insurance so you don't need it, or in the event you do need it, you have it. Nobody purchases car insurance saying, Great, I'm gonna go out and get into a wreck. Great, I'm gonna go out and rear end somebody at the next red light because I've got car insurance. I don't prep or I don't freeze-dry food. Thank goodness I freeze-dried a bunch of food. Now I hope the world comes to an end next week because I've got food. That's not the mentality you have. That's not the mentality that I have. It's all about insurance. You're hedging your bets. Get a water filter, it could be a Sawyer, a Sawyer mini, it could be anything. And to show her how it works, filters water, maybe it saves on bottled water. Another idea would be when you go grocery shopping, if you go grocery shopping with your wife, go ahead and grab two cans of beans instead of one. Grab two cases of water instead of one. If you get a thing of chicken breasts or a thing of pork chops, go ahead and if you can and you have the money, the discretionary income, buy another package of chicken or pork chops. Put it in the freezer. Again, it's all about insurance. And unfortunately, if something was to happen, and look at it this way you get the extra beans, you get the extra chicken, you get the extra pork chop. And when bad weather does hit and she does not want to go to the grocery store, you reach into the freezer, so here's the extra thing of chicken. It's not an SHTF situation, but because you were thinking ahead, because you were preparing for something to happen, bad weather, bad snowstorm isn't necessarily a significant SHTF situation, but you are prepared. Hey, honey, you remember that extra thing of chicken that I got at the grocery store three weeks ago? I'm gonna go get it out of the freezer. Now, neither of us have to go out in this crappy weather. That's a very simple example, and hopefully she'll get on board when you explain it that way. All right, folks, those are the emails that I've received in the last couple, three weeks. All right, folks, let's go over that big announcement I have for prepper camp. So I've been booked to teach Run, Hide, Fight at Prepper Camp 2026. That's August 14th, 15th, 16th. And this is at the new venue in Mill Spring, North Carolina. It's the Tryon International Equestrian Center. They have a huge campground, huge resort, cabins, great hotel rooms, plenty of amenities. It's a very cool site. So I think they're capping it at 2,000 people, I think. But I'm so stoked that I'll be teaching Run Hide Fight. And again, the way the classes work, I'll be teaching it on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday at the same time. And the class schedule usually is not released until very close to prepper camp. Probably some last-minute tweaks just to get everything set up correctly. And I teach it at the same time. So let's say I teach it at 2.30 in the afternoon. That'll be taught at 2.30 in the afternoon on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. They keep the schedule like that. So in the event you want to go to a bug out bag class that's being taught at 2.30, the same time as mine, you can go to the bug out class on Friday and come to my class on Saturday, or vice versa. So they leave it set up that way so you can kind of set your schedule ahead of time to see what classes you want to take. So again, very excited to be involved this year. You can go to preppercamp.com for tickets. There is a page on there. I think it's called Meet the Speakers. And I think I'm about halfway down. There's a little bio, a photo, talks about the class, talks about what I've done in the past. Go ahead and check it out, preppercamp.com. The sooner you get your tickets, the less they are. I know if you go right up to the date before prepper camp or a week or two before prepper camp, you're basically paying full price. I think the early bird, which is the earliest date that you can purchase the tickets, I think that's already passed. But don't wait any longer. If you want to go, go ahead and get your tickets and come by and see me. Say hello. And again, I'll be teaching Run Hide Fight. Alright, folks, thanks for stopping by so much. I appreciate it. Thanks for listening. Thanks everybody for all the emails. And as always, be careful out there. Take care of one another. And until next time.

SPEAKER_00 11:17

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