How the old Delta houses got through winter. Written down at last.
Keeping warm, fed, lit and safe, the way the old Delta houses did it.
How my people made it through a Delta winter on next to nothing: warming one room instead of the whole house, a towel at the bottom of the door, a quilt under the sheet, and knowing exactly what to do the first hour the ice brings the lines down. My grandmother never wrote any of it down, so I did, in four plain books. Read them on a dry afternoon. The night the power goes, the store is already out of batteries.
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Every cold night of a Delta winter, covered for $29.99.
Everything here, all four books and the cards beside them, for one payment of $29.99.
30-day money-back guarantee. Read it over. If it is not what you hoped, reply to your receipt inside thirty days and every dollar comes back, and you keep the files.
Secure checkout by Gumroad · we never see or store your cardWarm, without the bill. That was the whole point.
The old Delta houses were built for the heat, not the cold, and the people in them kept warm on almost nothing. Most of what this collection asks of you is free. Here is everything it asks you to buy, plain.
Prices as seen at Walmart in October 2026; yours may differ. The alarm is the one I would not do without.
Behind on the heating bill? Mississippi’s LIHEAP line is 1-800-421-0762, and older people are put first. It is in chapter eleven, and on the Numbers by the Phone card.
Four books, in the order a winter comes at you.
The people who carried this in their heads are mostly gone now. Here it is in order: warm, then the storm, then the old ways, then safe on your own. Every chapter is four short parts: what happened, what it meant, how to tell, and what to do.
Warm for Pennies
Keeping one warm room on a fixed check, the way the old houses did it, so you are not choosing between the heat and the groceries.
- Heat the room you live in, not the whole house
- The towel at the bottom of the door
- Plastic on the windows, and which ones first
- Warm the bed, not the bedroom
- The cold comes from underneath
- Ask for the heating-bill help before you need it
When the Ice Storm Takes the Power
What to do from the first hour the lights go out until the day after the trucks leave.
- The first hour after the power goes
- Light that will not burn the house down
- The oven is not a heater
- Water, and the pipes
- The icebox after the outage
- When to go stay with somebody
The Old House Ways
The strange things in the old Delta houses, why each one was there, and what it still teaches a brick house.
- The swept yard, and the real reason
- The kitchen out in the back yard
- The card in the window
- Newspaper on the walls
- The mosquito bar
- The hall straight through the middle
Safe and Sound on Your Own
For anybody living by themselves: the part of winter nobody else writes down for you.
- Somebody who calls every morning
- If you fall, on the ice or in the house
- When the cold is an emergency
- The winter scams, and the rule that stops them
- Medicines in the cold and the dark
- The pets, through the storm
The cards you print and keep
Four big-type cards for the icebox door and the kitchen cabinet: Cold Tonight, five things in the next hour; When the Lights Go Out, the first ten minutes; the Winter-Ready Checklist; and Numbers by the Phone. They work when the power is out and the phone is dead.
Print them this week. A card you cannot find in the dark is no card at all.
The cold comes from underneath
Why a quilt under the sheet does more than two on top.
The oven is not a heater
The trick a lot of people try once, and what the CDC says about it.
The swept yard
Not a poor yard. A working one, and the three reasons for it.
If you fall
Where your phone has to be before you step outside in January.
Saw it in a video? Here is the page.
Who set it down, and why.
I was born in 1948 in Humphreys County, in the Mississippi Delta, in a board house up on blocks. My grandmother, Mama Lu, swept her yard bare every Saturday, pasted newspaper on the walls every fall, and got eleven people through the winter on one fire and the quilts she made.
I live by myself now, not far from where I started. My grandchildren are grown and gone, and the last time they saw a picture of Mama Lu’s yard they asked me why her people were too poor to grow grass. That is when I started setting all of it down.
These four books are all of it, put in order: how to keep warm for pennies, what to do when the ice storm takes the power, the old house ways and why they worked, and how to stay safe living alone. I am not a doctor and I am not an electrician. Where a thing is about your health or a fire, I looked up what the National Institute on Aging, the CDC and the fire safety people say, and I tell you where it came from.
Get ready while it is easy, on a dry afternoon with the lights on. I set it all down for you.
$29.99 one-time payment, no subscription, yours to keep.
Instant access: in your inbox about a minute after you pay. Read all four books on any phone, tablet or computer, or print them at the kitchen table. Thirty days money back, no questions asked.
30-day money-back guarantee. Read it over. If it is not what you hoped, reply to your receipt inside thirty days and every dollar comes back, and you keep the files.
Secure checkout by Gumroad · we never see or store your cardOne payment, and the winter is handled.
$29.99 once, and all four books are yours. The download link lands in your email within a minute. Pay once, no subscription, and it is yours to keep and to hand down.
It comes with the large-print edition and the fridge-door cards, made for tired eyes, cold hands and the day the power is out.
The best time to read about an ice storm is in October, with the lights on.
Get everything · $29.99 →30-day refund guarantee. Read it over. If it is not what you hoped, reply to the receipt inside thirty days and you get every dollar back, and you keep the files.
Secure checkout by GumroadWhat people ask me first.
Is this a prepper book?
No. It is how the old Delta houses got through the cold, set down plain, with the safety parts checked against the people who publish them. There are no bunkers in it and no gear lists. It is for an ordinary house on an ordinary road.
Do I need special gear, or a generator?
No. Most of it is a towel, a quilt, the curtains and knowing what to do first. The two things it asks you to buy are a box of window film and a carbon monoxide alarm, and it tells you why.
Is it hard to do?
No. These are small things a body can do this week, one at a time, written big and plain.
What do I get, and in what form?
An instant download: the regular edition (37 pages), the large-print edition (55 pages), and the four fridge-door cards to print. It reads on a phone, a tablet or a computer, or you print it at the kitchen table. The link comes to your email within a minute.
I am not good with computers. Will I manage?
Gumroad emails you a download link the minute you pay. Tap it and the books open. Then print the four cards, so they are on paper the day the phone is dead. If anything goes wrong, answer the receipt email and somebody will help.
Money is tight. Is $29.99 a stretch?
Most of what is in it costs nothing: one warm room, a towel at the door, a quilt under the sheet. And chapter eleven is where to call for heating-bill help in Mississippi, which is worth more than the book if you qualify.
Can I buy it for my mother or my father living alone?
Yes, and a lot of people do. Book IV is written for exactly that person. Print the fridge-door cards for them and tape the last one by their phone.
What if it is not for me?
Thirty days, every dollar back, and you keep the files. Reply to the receipt. No form and no reason needed.
Start with one page, free.
Get the When the Lights Go Out card free: the first ten minutes, on one page, to tape by your phone. It costs nothing, and it is the page I would want by my own phone.
Send me the free card →