When the stove quits, the furnace doesn't matter anymore. What matters is what you know.
The old lamp: a stone dish with one long row of small flames along its straight edge. Murdoch saw two of them keep a winter house "between 50° and 60° F. in the coldest weather."
I put everything my grandfather taught me into one book. Every rule, and what to do in your own house when the power goes out. And in your car, and in your camp.
271 rules in 440 large-print pages. Every fact names its source.
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440Large-print pages
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The first hour
Most people spend the first hour doing the opposite.
Right now your house is still warm. The walls, the beds and the floor are holding heat from the day. That is the most heat you are going to have tonight. Here is how people let it go.
1
The oven door
You open it for heat, because everybody says to. The CDC: "Never heat your house with a gas oven." It makes carbon monoxide in a house you've just closed up. Ch. 7
2
The fridge
You open it to check on it. FEMA says a closed fridge keeps food cold for about 4 hours, and a full freezer holds about 48. Every look spends some of that. Rule 37
3
The doors
You leave them open so the heat spreads. It does, and so does the cold. Everybody ends up a little cold instead of one room being warm. Ch. 8
4
The cracked window
Someone tells you a cracked window makes the generator or the camp stove safe inside. For generators, the CPSC says opening doors or windows "will not provide enough ventilation." Ch. 10
5
The tailpipe
Stuck in a snowbank, you start the engine for heat. If snow blocks the tailpipe, the CDC says carbon monoxide "can build up quickly inside your vehicle." Clear it first, every time. Rule 203
None of this is hard. It just isn't what people do in the dark.
What you'll be able to do
Keep warm, fed and safe when the heat goes out
Each rule starts with what you do, in your own house, car or camp. Most come with the old way behind them, because knowing why a thing works is how you remember it at two in the morning.
Sleep warm when the heat's off: off the floor, a tent over the bed, more under you than over you.
Trap the heat in one room, with a blanket over the doorway.
Know what's safe to run indoors, and what never is: generators, grills, camp stoves, the oven.
Get through a night in your car: engine off before anyone sleeps, a CO alarm by your head.
Keep your feet warm without three pairs of socks.
Keep food safe without a freezer, by thermometer and clock: 4 hours, 48 hours, 40°F.
Get water when the pipes freeze, and turn snow into water you can drink.
Spot hypothermia and frostbite early, and know when to get help.
It wasn't an igloo
Movies show my people living in igloos all year. Up here, that's not how it was. In northern Alaska the winter home was a house of driftwood, whalebone and sod, set low and covered in earth. Snow houses were for hunting trips and travel.
Some Inuit in Canada did live in snow-house villages all winter. When something in the book comes from Canada or Greenland, the book says so.
Today I have an oil stove, like everybody else. This book is for when it quits.
See what's inside
Ten parts, in the order you'd live through it
Every rule is tagged HOUSE, CAR or CAMP, and $0 when it costs nothing.
Part I · Rules 1–33
Before Winter: House, Car, Kit
Seal the drafts, pick your warm room now, and put in backup heat that won't kill you.
Part II · Rules 34–70
The Night the Heat Goes Out
The first hour, in order. One room, a blanket over the doorway, and what never to burn inside.
Part III · Rules 71–105
Sleeping Warm With No Heat
Off the floor, a tent over the bed, more under you than over, and who to check at 2 a.m.
Part IV · Rules 106–133
How My People's Houses Held Heat, and What Yours Can Learn
The sod house, the cold-trap tunnel, the lamp, and what your door, floors and vents can borrow from them.
Part V · Rules 134–161
Clothing: Layers, Feet, Hands, Moisture
Two layers with air between, why sweat lets the cold in, and warm clothes on little money.
Part VI · Rules 162–194
Food and Water
What my people ate, how to eat in a cold house, keeping food without a freezer, and water when everything is frozen.
Part VII · Rules 195–216
The Car
Written for people who sleep in a car, van or camper on purpose, and for people who get stuck.
Part VIII · Rules 217–241
Outside: Blizzard, Whiteout, Ice, Animals
Reading the weather, a blizzard or a whiteout, ice you can't read, and dogs, bears and moose.
Part IX · Rules 242–258
The Body: Hypothermia and Frostbite
How the body loses heat, and how to recognize hypothermia and frostbite and get help. Nothing here replaces medical care.
Part X · Rules 259–271
The Long Dark: Living Packed Together
At Utqiaġvik the sun stays down 64 or 65 days, by the U.S. Naval Observatory's tables. How my people lived through it, many people to one room.
Plus the Workbook
Print these
The Master Checklist, 9 worksheets, 4 cut-out cards and every source. A plan on paper still works when the phone is dead.
Look inside
Real pages, true 13‑point type
Page 54. Chapter 7, The First Hour: the opening, then Rule 34.
Fig. 7.1 · The first hour, in orderFig. 10.2 · The carbon monoxide cardFig. 19.1 · The winter house, cut away
Who it's for
You own a house where winter comes, and one day the power or the furnace will go out with the family inside.
You sleep in a car, a van or a camper through the winter, and you need to wake up in the morning.
You watched films about the Inuit in school and always wondered how it really worked.
Who it's not for
If you want weapons, sea-ice travel, or how to build a snow shelter to survive in, it isn't here.
If you need medical treatment, that's a doctor. The book shows you how to recognize trouble and get help.
The book runs in the order you'd live through a winter emergency. You don't have to read it front to back. If the heat is out right now, start at Chapter 7.
What you get
One book. Everything is in it.
The book. 440 large-print pages, 10 parts, 51 chapters, 271 numbered rules. 54 diagrams and cards, 10 part-opener illustrations.
The Master Checklist. All 271 rules sorted into tonight, this weekend and before winter.
9 printable worksheets. From the before-winter house walk to the emergency numbers for the fridge.
4 cut-out cards. The first hour, carbon monoxide, the fridge, the car.
Grandfather's Rules, the Iñupiaq words, and every source. 51 rules on one list, and 432 sources by chapter.
The checklist, worksheets and cards are pages of the book, not bonuses with prices made up for them. There is one price.
It means polar bear. My grandfather gave me that name because I was stubborn. He was right, and I still am.
I live on the North Slope of Alaska. My grandfather taught me how our people lived through winter, and so did my father.
Today I have an oil stove, a snowmachine and a phone, like everybody else up here. But stoves quit. Power lines come down. Cars slide off empty roads. When that happens, the rules my people lived by still work.
I didn't write this from memory alone. Every old practice in the book is checked against where it's written down: John Murdoch's notes from Utqiaġvik, 1881 to 1883, Robert Spencer's 1959 study of the North Alaskan Iñupiat, and the museum and archaeology records. Every safety fact names the agency that published it: the CDC, FEMA, the Red Cross, the National Weather Service, the USDA, the CPSC. If I couldn't find a source, I left it out, even when I believed it.
What I'm not. I'm not a doctor, a rescuer, a guide, a healer or an official, and this book isn't one either. It's what my family knew, checked against what's written down, and turned toward your house.
Why you can check it
Nothing here is made up
432 sources, named. Each fact names its source beside it, and every source is listed by chapter in the back.
A carbon monoxide warning in every chapter on heat, the car or shelter. Plus a card to tape next to the alarm.
Where a practice is Canadian or Greenlandic, the book says so. It speaks for one family's tradition on the North Slope and the published record around it, not for all Inuit.
No sponsors, no affiliate links. Where a maker's name appears, it's because the maker explains its own product, not because anyone paid.
What it leaves out on purpose. Weapons, sea-ice travel, building snow shelters to survive in, and medical treatment.
30-day refund. If it isn't for you, ask within 30 days and you get your money back.
Questions
What people ask
Isn't all this free online?
Most of the safety facts are, spread over a dozen agency websites you can't open when the power and the phone are out. The book puts them in the order you'd need them, on paper, next to how my people did it, with every source named. And 180 of the 271 rules cost nothing to do.
Is it a physical book? How fast do I get it?
It's a PDF, US Letter size, made to print at home. You get it right away: after checkout, Gumroad shows the download and emails you the link. It opens on a phone or tablet, but at true 13-point type on a letter-size page you'll zoom on a phone. It reads best printed, or on a tablet. Print the worksheets and cards before the storm.
Does it work if I rent, or sleep in my car or van?
Yes. Every rule is tagged HOUSE, CAR or CAMP. Part VII, The Car, is written for people who sleep in a car, van or camper on purpose, and for people who get stuck. Where a job belongs to the building, like the main water shutoff in an apartment, the book tells you to ask the manager.
Is it scary, or political?
No. It's calm. No doom, no politics, no weapons. It tells you what to do, in order, and why.
Did your people really live in igloos? Do you still live like that?
Not up here. In northern Alaska the winter home was a house of driftwood, whalebone and sod. Snow houses were built for hunting trips and travel. Some Inuit in Canada lived in snow-house villages all winter, and when the book uses Canadian or Greenlandic material, it says so. And no. I have an oil stove like everybody else. The book is for when it quits.
Is this medical or emergency advice?
No. It shares traditional knowledge and general winter-safety information from public agencies. For hypothermia, frostbite and carbon monoxide, it shows you how to recognize them and get help. In an emergency, call your local emergency number.
Who is Nanuq?
Nanuq is a pen name. The knowledge is my family's, and the sources are real: every one is named beside its claim and listed in the back.
What if it's not for me?
Email within 30 days of buying and you get a full refund.
Stoves quit. The rules still work.
Everything my grandfather taught me, and what to do in your own house when the power goes out.
