My Conflicted Mind

Sometimes I feel like I live between two different worlds and I can't tell which one is reality.

The first world is the one explored in books like Patriots, Survivors,and One Second After. The end of the world as we know it is discussed as fact on many of my regular Internet haunts and, increasingly, in the mainstream media. In this world, it is apparent that the old ways are passing away and something new - and quite possibly sinister - is approaching.

One Second After still haunts me

The second world is optimistic and sparkles with cheerful consumerism. According to this version of reality, there may be slight bumps in the road, but life will always be good in the US of A. Nothing really bad can ever happen here. The comfortable lifestyle that my family enjoys is secure because we have plenty of that green paper stuff that passes for wealth.

One world urges me to focus on preparedness. NOW. The other entreats me to stop being a killjoy and start planning my next vacation. Which world reflects the true reality?

My guess is that reality is somewhere between those two visions. I pray that we never have a total breakdown of society such as that depicted in the aforementioned books, but I do believe that harder times are coming. I feel led by the Holy Spirit to prepare, specifically in the area of food storage. That is reason enough for a Christian to venture into prepping, however, it's not always easy. It gets very tempting to give up when I think that I could be remodeling my kitchen instead of buying MREs!

Do any of you struggle with conflicted feelings regarding preparedness? Why do YOU prepare? 

Pre-TEOTWAWKI Shopping List

Image from yourfamilymoney.wordpress.com

Do you follow The Survival Mom's blog? If so, you probably read her recent post called "Survival Shopping at Costco". She tested out James Wesley Rawles' contention that it is possible to do a last ditch, pre-TEOTWAWKI stock-up at Costco.

Now, we don't have a Costco anywhere near us and Sam's Club is pretty far away. Depending on what I think is about to go down, I may not be comfortable going or sending Hubby Dear on a shopping expedition an hour or two away. But we do have a couple of grocery stores, a farm supply store, and a mini version of Wal-Mart in our town and we can find a lot of useful items there. That's assuming, of course, that nobody else gets the same idea and strips the stores bare before I get there.

The problem is keeping a clear head in the chaos. I'd like to think that my preps will help me be cool, calm, and collected, but the truth of the matter is I tend to freak out. Not to mention the fact that I'll have four kids with me and shopping with my crew is always an adventure. And Hubby Dear? He's more likely to be cool and calm than me, but he's also pretty clueless. He did read One Second After, reads my blog, and listens to me blather on about preparedness, but it's just not his thing.

So what I did to combat these problems is make several copies of Lisa's Pre-TEOTWAWKI shopping list. I put a copy in my Preparedness Binder and one in the glove box of each of our vehicles. If Hubby Dear or I decide that something is about to go down, we'll use our secret codeword  (Read Alas, Babylon, anybody?) and be ready to do some guerilla shopping.

Of course the best thing to do would be to get completely prepared ahead of time so we don't have to fight the local yokels for the last package of Charmin. It's unlikely that we'll have a few days' notice before the End of the World, anyway.

 Download Lisa's shopping list here. It's a good tool to help you make sure you've got all the bases covered.

Month Four: Vehicle Kit, Part Deux

Hubby Dear's Mini-Vehicle Kit: Enough to get him home. 

During the first month of my Prepping Plan, I made a mini vehicle kit for Hubby Dear's car but didn't do too much for my own vehicle, the family mini-van. I knew that we needed to stock some essentials in our vehicle, but I wasn't entirely sure how they would all fit.

I purchased the supplies for the van as part of my Month Four Preps and took advantage of a quiet evening to myself to put it all together and shoehorn it into place. I had to contort myself like I was playing a demented game of Twister, but I got it done. The workout I received from my efforts was an added bonus, I guess!

I took advantage of every available space in my van and also thought about how and when I would be likely to use each item. Take the First Aid kit, for example. I figure that the First Aid kit will see the most action of any item in my emergency kit, so I wanted to have it readily accessible. A slot in the passenger side door fit the kit perfectly and keeps it nearby. The Aqua Literz, on the other hand, I intend to use only in an  emergency. I put those, a roll of toilet paper, and a few other odds and ends in a box underneath the rear bench seat. I'll have to check them for explosions leaks periodically, as I have found out the hard way.

In various stashes throughout my van, I have:

• First Aid kit, feminine hygiene items
• LED Headlamp
• Basic survival kit stuff - multitool, matches, whistle, etc.
• Empty water bottles
• Aqua Literz
• Ration bars
• Ponchos and emergency blankets for each family member
• Hand and Body Warmers
• Fleece blankets
• Toilet Paper
• Handcrank radio, flashlight and cell phone charger
• Road Atlas
• Duct Tape
• Roadside kit - jumper cables, tools, etc.



So true, isn't it?

• Foldable shovel

I have two children in diapers, so I always bring a fully stocked diaper bag with me.

I also made an inventory sheet to place in my glove box that lists all of my items and where they are located. I'm bound to forget where I put some of that stuff, especially if I'm under stress.

If you haven't seen it already, take a look at one of my favorite channels on YouTube, AnalyticalSurvival. He modified the trunk in his wife's car to hold an extremely complete vehicle kit. That won't work in my situation, but it may in yours. Plus, it's just cool!

If you are like I was and think you don't have room in your vehicle for some preps, take another look. You might appear as graceful as a hippo doing the cha-cha while you stash them away in every nook and cranny, but you'll be thankful in the long run that you have your preps in place.

Hurricane Warning

I bet the unprepared people living around the projected path of Hurricane Earl are wishing they had stocked up on essentials ahead of time.

http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/09/02/hurricane.earl.people/

I lived through Hurricane Andrew in 1992. I was living in Louisiana at the time and so we did not experience the full force of the storm like Florida did. We didn't have much besides a loss of power for three days and downed tree limbs. I honestly don't remember if my parents prepared for Andrew ahead of time or not. I was a freshman in high school and I cared much more about my hair and my senior boyfriend than I did anything else! 

I don't live in hurricane country these days, but I do live in flash flood, ice storm, blizzard, and tornado country. I also live in unemployment, inflation, food supply disruption, and grid failure country. You do, too, if you live on planet earth.   

The people on the east coast are lucky that they have gotten several days warning for this particular crisis. That is not something you can count on having.

Disasters DO happen. They will happen to YOU. It's just a matter of WHEN and WHAT.

Let's make sure that we're not going to be among the rabble scrambling for last minute preparations. Think about the potential disasters that you are at risk for  - be they natural, economic or what have you - and get ready now.

I feel inspired to get cracking on my prepping plan, how about you?

Take the SurvivalMom's Report Card Challenge

One of the blogs I read reguarly is The SurvivalMom. A few days ago, she wrote this post, a report card on her current state of preparedness. It inspired me to rate our ability to survive during a crisis here at the Harried Homemaker Acres.

1) Water - C. I have 2 weeks of water stored for my family, four weeks if we use what is in our reverse-osmosis system, water heaters and random bottles stored here and there.

To turn this into an A: I need to buy a water filter and materials like bleach to sanitize additional water we would collect during a long-term emergency.



2) Sanitation - B. I've got about two months of toilet paper, a big bottle of hand sanitizer and a gallon of soap stored. I also have a large box of trash bags and a few 5-gallon buckets we could fashion into toilets if need be. 

To turn this into an A: More toilet paper! My goal is to have a year's worth on hand plus a large supply of paper towels. I would also like to have several more boxes of trash bags and perhaps a toilet seat we could affix to the aforementioned 5-gallon buckets. We used to have a burn barrel before we bribed convinced a mom and pop trash collection operation from a town 40 miles away to come and get our trash each week. We may need to get another barrel to use WSHTF or borrow our neighbor's barrel. (I live in a place without trash collection. I told you we live in the sticks!)



3) Laundry - D-. I have a bit of extra homemade laundry detergent and a large laundry room with a deep sink and racks that I could hang our clothes to dry in.

To turn this into an A: More laundry detergent, at least 6 months worth. I am also considering getting one of these or something similar that would make washing laundry by hand easier.


 

I wish this was my food storage! From UtahPreppers.com

4) Food Storage - D. If we ate some strange meals (peanut butter and green beans on pasta, anyone?), we could survive for at least a month, probably more. We would certainly be unhappy and probably constipated, though.

To turn this into an A: I need to keep storing a wide variety of foods. This needs to include all the food groups, plus some comfort foods to keep morale up. My goal is to have a minimum of 1 year of food stored. I'm working at it in 3 month increments (ie. get 3 months worth of all kinds of food before I store more of any one particular group). I need to have a selection of foods that are easy prep for those very busy days or if Hubby Dear has to make something on his own.


 
5) Knowledge and Skills - C. I'm continuing to read and research, buy items, and then test them out. In the past few months I've learned how to use a pressure canner and got some hands-on experience with wheat kernels. Our whole family is working toward becoming self-reliant through gardening. I've even bribed Hubby Dear to read Rawles' How to Survive TEOTWAWKI. Don't ask how I managed to accomplish that feat.

To turn this into an A: I need to continue what I'm doing but branch out into other areas far from my comfort zone. A major area we are lacking in is self-defense. We have always been against having firearms in our house but I'm beginning to see that this is an important part of preparedness. I need to get a ton of education and practice in this area before I make such a major commitment.


Compared to where we need to be, we score four raspberries on a five raspberry scale. Compared to where we were six months ago, however, we're definitely on the right track.

How do you rate?

Does Prepping = Homeschooling? And vice versa?

I was a homeschooler long before I was a prepper. Our family chooses to homeschool our children mainly for academic reasons. We seek to provide our children with an excellent, individualized education. Our desire for family togetherness and flexibility follows in close second. We also seek to develop our children's relationship with the Lord. I've never seen a formal poll, but it seems to me that a lot of preppers/survivalists homeschool their children. I know at least three of the blogs that I read regularly are headed up by homeschoolin' mamas.

If you prep, does that automatically mean you should homeschool?

Reasons to homeschool if you're a prepper:

1. Preppers are independent by nature. 

Preppers know that they cannot rely on others for the essentials of life. They have found that anything the government is involved in is going to get messed up. Most parents can do a much better job teaching their children than any brick and mortar school. Keep in mind that I used to teach at one of the top high schools in the country, so I'm not slamming those educators out there that are doing their best with a tough job. It is honestly a lot easier to teach your own children, catering to their own abilities and learning styles than it is to pound education into the heads of a class of 39 hormonal teenagers. Or so I've found.

   2.  You can design your family's curriculum to teach your children the skills
        you deem essential.

The SurvivalMom takes advantage of her flexible homeschooling schedule to fit in   target practice with her youngsters. Organized Prepper's family engages in "Family Fun" activities like building a box oven. My own darling offspring are learning how to cook and garden. These are not only essential survival and life skills but they also have the side benefit of teaching math and science. As our lifestyle becomes more self-reliant, our children will learn many new skills at our side. If you are always at the beck and call of the school schedule, you may find your children's lives are more filled with homework than homesteading.

  3.   Your children more likely to be near you during an emergency.

This is probably not a super important reason to homeschool, but it is a benefit. As a preparedness-minded person, you are much more likely to be able to keep your children safe in an emergency than some poor overworked soul in a run-down school building. Contrary to popular opinion, homeschooled children aren't cloistered at home with mom all day, every day, but you do have a higher likelihood with being with your children than most parents of school-age children.

Reasons to NOT homeschool:

 1. You need two incomes to support your family.

Some people manage to both work full time and homeschool. All it takes is a little ingenuity and flexibility. Others think the sacrifice of one income is well worth the benefits of homeschooling. But perhaps you are barely making ends meet. Or maybe you're a single parent already spread too thin. Those are cases where it would be most challenging to introduce homeschooling into the mix.

2. You don't want to spend time with your children.

OK, so I could have worded that better. The truth is that homeschooling parents are no better or worse than other parents. We all have days when we fantasize about putting our children on the big yellow bus and merrily waving goodbye. I often lack every single one of the nine fruits of the spirit, particularly patience and self-control. I always manage to pull it back together some how, though. When it comes down to it, I am always glad I homeschool.

And if you do homeschool, how should prepping affect it?

Things to think about:

• Consider buying your curriculum ahead of time. If TEOTWAWKI  happens, obtaining curriculum will be the least of your worries, but if you already have it on hand your children will be able to get an education. An education will always be worthwhile.
• You might also think about the kind of curriculum you invest in. We use Sonlight for our primary curriculum needs. The vast majority of it is non-consumable, which means it can be used for multiple children. We have shelves of wonderful literature that all of my children will get to enjoy as they go through their education.

• A lot of homeschoolers use computerized curriculums. If you have no power, you will be unable to do school. That's something to think about. The Thinker's math curriculum is computerized and if we were without power for a long time, we'd have to come up with an alternative.
• Approach electives with preparedness in mind. We encourage our children to pursue things that are of special interest to them. In addition to the sports and music they are already involved in, we are going to join 4-H. This will give them valuable skills in many preparedness-related areas.
• Think about life insurance. The current recommendation is that you have 10x your annual salary in life insurance. Would you have enough money to continue homeschooling and maintain your current standard of living if your spouse should pass away? 

Obviously, homeschooling, like prepping, is not "normal" or "average". Both, however, are getting to be a bit more mainstream. For our family, both are part of our way of life.

A Review: Emergency Food Storage and Survival Handbook by Peggy Layton

I’ve never been dissatisfied with living in the Midwest until I started getting into prepping. Materials for prepping are so much more easily available in the West. I’ve heard that regular ol’ Wal-Mart carries #10 cans of dehydrated foods and big buckets of wheat in certain areas! I’m sure many libraries in the West also carry a variety of food storage and preparedness books. I’ve not had much luck finding any at our local libraries.

I did, however, stumble upon a copy of Emergency Food Storage & Survival Handbook by Peggy Layton at a big city library. I was so excited I did the moonwalk down the aisle. The reason I embarrassed my darling children with my dance moves is that Peggy Layton is one of the big names in food storage literature. She has written about eight different food storage cookbooks that are highly recommended.

The subtitle of this book is “Everything You Need to Know to Keep Your Family Safe in a Crisis”. I tend to disagree with that since this book really doesn’t touch many of the key survivalist topics in detail. It does, however, cover food storage extensively as well as 72-hour kits and water storage to a lesser extent.

The chapters of the book are entitled:

Preparing for Short-Term Emergencies

Storing Water for Emergency Use

The Economics of Long-Term Emergency Storage

The Logistics of Long-Term Emergency Storage

Building Your Stockpile of Food and Other Necessities

Obtaining Food for Storage

Implementing Your Food Storage Plan

Recipes Using Stored Foods

One of the strengths of this book is the many checklists Layton includes. Want to know what should be in your car kit or canning equipment? She’s got a checklist for that. She also includes many pages of inventory planning charts that you could photocopy and use for your own family.

There are many different types of recipes included in this book. They use commonly stored items like beans, dried eggs, powdered milk, etc. I have only tried one of them - Cracked Whole Wheat Cereal - and it turned out to be a failure. That may be more my fault than the recipe's fault, though, and I'll discuss that next week. The recipes do seem a little basic, but they would be a good starting place to design a meal that caters to your family’s taste. I’m kind of scared to try the “pinto bean punch”, though. I don’t think beans combined with 7-Up would ever agree with my family’s palate!

This book was obviously written with a wide audience in mind. She has taken this notion as far as not even bringing up the LDS food storage guidelines (ie. 150 lb of wheat per adult per year, etc.). These guidelines are accepted by preppers far and wide, so I’m not entirely sure why she omitted them in her book.

In fact Layton never gives you an idea of how much of anything you should be storing. She suggests listing some recipes and then figuring out how much it would take to make three months of those meals. Multiply by 2, 3, or 4 and you will know how much to purchase for 6, 9 or 12 months of meals. That’s all well and good, but I think it’s important to give food storage newbies an idea of just how much this will be. This is not to overwhelm anyone, but it is important to be realistic. The 202 lb of wheat I just ordered sounds huge, but because I have an idea of the amounts you are supposed to store I know that is only about 3 months worth of wheat for my family.

I’m being nitpicky. Overall, this is a great book that you can learn a lot from. I do not feel compelled to buy my own copy of the book because I a) have a lot of this information from other sources, namely Food Storage Made Easy and b) I’m going to photocopy the relevant pages to add to my food storage recipe or preparedness binders.

You can buy Emergency Food Storage & Survival Handbook at amazon.com or www.peggylayton.com.

Financial Preparedness, Part I

The American people are feeling pretty light in the pocketbook at the moment. I don't have any solutions for our national economic problem, but I do know a way you can build a strong financial future for your family. Dave Ramsey has come up with a common-sense plan you can use to become financially prepared. Over the next few weeks I will be discussing Dave Ramsey's Seven Baby Steps and applying them to preparedness.

Baby Step One: Create an $1,000 emergency fund

The first step towards achieving financial freedom is saving money for an emergency. Dave says you should start with the amount of $1,000. You are not to touch this money unless it is a true emergency.


Your furnace dies in the dead of winter = EMERGENCY
Your car needs a serious repair = EMERGENCY
You lose your job = EMERGENCY
You run out of Diet Coke Zero and you have spent all the money you budgeted for soda = NOT AN EMERGENCY

That is something I have to repeat to myself regularly.

The reason you should start with this step instead of immediately tackling your debt is that the unexpected WILL happen. We have had a ton of medical expenses in my family this year. Some were expected (the birth of Baby Dear), some were not (two family members needing an MRI). If you don't have any money on hand to deal with life's little (and big) emergencies, chances are you will add to your debt. You'll never climb out of the pit of financial insecurity if you don't build an emergency fund. Keep in mind that this is only a starter emergency fund and you will need to save even more money after you become debt free.

Now for the prepping aspect of Baby Step #1. Having cash on hand is essential for preparedness. Consider this:

• During the Great Depression, FDR declared a bank holiday. All banks throughout the country were closed for several days. If that was to happen today, you would definitely want to have cash at your fingertips.
• If the grid goes down in a short or long-term emergency, cash or barter will be the only way you can buy goods. ATMs won't work and neither will your debit or credit cards.

I do keep the bulk of my emergency fund in the bank, but I am starting to keep a stash of cash at home. Some of it will be in our BOBs and in our vehicle kits. The rest of it will be kept in a fireproof safe hidden in my home. You should make sure that the bulk of your cash is in small denominations unless you relish the prospect of paying for a $7 pack of batteries with a $50 bill! There may not be change available when you need to use your cash in an emergency.

In his book, The Total Money Makeover, Dave relates the story of one of his listeners who put her $1,000 emergency fund in a cheap glass picture frame. She wrote "Break in case of emergency" on the paper she displayed in the frame. The frame was then hung on the wall behind the coats in her coat closet.

Many survivalists and preppers think that precious metals are an emergency fund essential. That is not a priority for me at all. I have way too many other things I need to spend my prepping money on at the moment and I'm not sure gold will end up being a quality investment outside of preparedness over the long haul. Read more about why you may or may not need to buy gold here. Dave Ramsey doesn't think gold is a great investment, but then again he thought I was a nut for storing food.

Saving money for an emergency is key, whether that emergency is TEOTWAWKI or simply everyday life.

Read much more about the Baby Steps in The Total Money Makeover. You may also be able to listen to Dave on his syndicated radio show. Dave's the man!

A Review: Emergency Preparedness the Right Way, by Howard Godfrey

The first prepping book I bought was Emergency Preparedness the Right Way by Howard Godfrey. I’m not exactly sure why I decided to purchase this one over the many other books on this topic available. I was just browsing on amazon.com and somehow this book ended up in my cart. I think it was the cute little girl on the cover that did it.

This is a small book – only 143 pages including the index and references. Small though it may be, it does cover the major survival topics. Chapters include:

-Planning and other random thoughts

-Water

                                       -Food

                                       -Storage Tips

                                     -Cooking, lights and fuel

                                     -Medical and sanitation

                                     -72-hour kits

                                     -Miscellaneous recipes (HH says: These are truly
                                      miscellaneous. Don’t buy this book for food storage recipes)

                                     -Improvised equipment

                                     -Some Last Thoughts

One thing I appreciated about this book is that it makes survival topics very accessible for the novice prepper. It’s not full of jargon or highly technical discussions. I got a good basis and it inspired me to do further research.

One weakness of this book is that it has a bit of filler. The author includes long (the one on pinto beans is 1+ pages) quotations from scholarly studies done at BYU. While the information may be relevant, the author could have simply summarized the findings of the studies. It felt like the author was trying to beef up the page count of his book, much like my students would do when I was a teacher back in the day. Add a bit of filler, make the margins 2 inches, jack up the font size and PRESTO you have a 5-7 page research paper, teacher! This book is self-published. This kind of stuff, plus the random nature of the first and last chapters, wouldn’t have made it past the editing process of most publishing houses.

Since some people are put off by heavily Mormon content, I will make note of it when I do reviews. Personally it doesn’t bother me. Some of the nicest people I have met are Mormons. I also have read enough Mormon preparedness documents to be able to quote their scriptures by now! The Mormons are on their game when it comes to prepping. The author does say "Remember, if you are prepared you shall not fear", which is a Mormon scriptural reference. That is about it.

This wasn’t a bad start to my prepping library. It covers the most important topics, albeit not in great depth. There is some filler included, but it is an adequate primer for the beginning prepper. I’ll keep this for reference and it has whetted my appetite for more.

Emergency Preparedness the Right Way is available at Amazon.com

YouTube Preppers

There's a ton of information on the Internet on survival-related topics. Type in "food storage" or "survival" on YouTube and you will find a wide variety of videos. Some are useful, some useless and some are filled with unreliable information.

I'd like to share a couple of YouTube channels that have information you can trust. In some ways they are polar opposites. Both, however, have good information and inspiration for the budding prepper.

The first is AnalyticalSurvival, which you can find here:

http://www.youtube.com/user/AnalyticalSurvival

GM is ex-Special Forces and his videos cover very hardcore, masculine survival topics. Want to find out the best foods for a bug-out situation, learn how to maintain your shooting gear or create a medical trauma bag? This is your channel. GM has a talent for making complicated topics seem easy. His presentations are well-organized and chock full of info. GM approaches survival from a very military perspective, which for me is a bit intimidating. He also borders on OCD with his organization of his survival gear! You will learn a lot if you watch the videos on this channel.

The second YouTuber I would like to recommend is Michigansnowpony.

http://www.youtube.com/user/Michigansnowpony

Renee describes herself as a homesteading prepper and her videos capture that life well. Her garden videos make me jealous! One day I hope my crops will be as abundant. She also covers small livestock and various prepping related topics. I learned how to can chicken from one of her videos and can't wait to try it out. Her demeanor is that of a knowledgable, friendly neighbor. She makes me feel like I can do what she does, too.

If you have any other favorite YouTube channels or prepping-related blogs and websites, please let me know!

Woohoo! Dave Ramsey says I'm right!

Hubby Dear and I have been going back and forth a lot on the subject of prepping. Honestly, it has descended into flat-out fights several times. Hubby Dear and I are the kind of couple that usually make people sick because we're so lovey-dovey even after over a decade of marriage, so that is very unusual. It was after one of those fights that I got all steamed up and emailed Dave Ramsey. Little did I know that I would quickly get a reply from Dave's producer, Lara Johnson, and actually talk with the man himself live on national radio.

In case you do not know who Dave Ramsey is, he is THE financial guru. His slogan says it all: "Debt is dumb, cash is king, and the paid-off home mortgage has taken the place of the BMW as the status symbol of choice". We have been following the Baby Steps as set out in his best-selling book, The Total Money Makeover, for over a year. I knew if anyone could solve this problem Hubby Dear and I have, it would be Dave.

When we put our problem before Dave, he was impressed to hear how much debt we had paid off in the last year. Lee told Dave that he didn't want to spend money on prepping until we paid off the remainder of our debt. Dave Ramsey told Lee that it would be fine to set a budget for prepping as long as we stick to it. Dave noted that preparedness obviously must be something important to me since I was willing to call in to a national radio show!

After he stated his opinion on our question, Dave asked me why I felt the need to, in his words, "store up a bunch of food in the basement". I briefly explained my reasons for prepping. Dave said he wasn't worried about ever having trouble feeding his kids, but said what did he know - he stocked up on certain kinds of ammo when Obama came into office.

Overall, I was very satisfied with the call, even though Dave isn't a prepper. Hubby Dear and I are finally on the same page with our budget and I get to spend money on prepping.



* By the way, they said our location as Kansas City. I'm proud that I was quick witted enough to give a phony location. I didn't break OPSEC! ;)

The Marriage Ref - Dave Ramsey!

Well, Hubby Dear and I still aren't seeing eye to eye on spending money on prepping. So I called in the big gun - Dave Ramsey! I'll be speaking to Dave on his radio show around 1 pm central time on Monday. We'll see whose side of the argument Dave falls on!

Love and the Married Prepper

Hubby Dear and I have been together quite a while and we rarely disagree over much of consequence. My new preparedness "obsession", however, is another story.

I'll admit it - I can have a pretty anxious personality. I am a glass-is-half-full, anything-that-can-go-wrong-will-go-wrong kind of gal. Hubby Dear thinks "prepping" is just another one of my neuroses and that I should just chill out and stop worrying.

The other facet of his argument is that we are working hard at becoming debt free. We have paid off something like $50,000 in the last year. Our only remaining debt is a lease we have on Hubby Dear's vehicle, and we are saving up the money to pay that off this fall. I agree that getting debt free is really important. Heck, that would count as financial preparedness, wouldn't it?

The problem is that Hubby Dear doesn't want to spend money that I thought we had budgeted for prepping. He'd rather put it towards paying off his vehicle. Here's how I see it: if we spend the money to prep, it will delay paying off his vehicle for a month at the most. If SHTF between now and then, however, those few months I was able to prepare might make the difference between survival and, well, not surviving.

Hubby Dear just doesn't think the SHTF will occur. I hope he's right. In the meantime, we'll be prepping. I used a little bit of wifely persuasion to help him see my way. After all, a happy wife equals a happy life! ;)

Prepping and History

Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it.

- George Santayana

I don't know who George Santayana is or was, but he sure gets quoted often. The reason for that, of course is that George Santayana was right.

I think history is fascinating and have studied it much of my life but it wasn't until recently that I started thinking about the implications of history when it comes to prepping.

One thing I've been ruminating on is the fact that there is not one civilization that has managed to prosper throughout the entire scope of human history. The Sumerians, Babylonians, Persians, Ancient Egyptians, Romans? All Gone. Every other ancient or even more recent civilization or empire that you ever learned about in history class? Toast. Parts of the cultures may remain, but through wars (international or civil), famine, plague, natural disaster, social strife or whatnot, there is not one civilization that remains unscathed. You maybe could make a case for the Chinese, who have many years of history. Chairman Mao and the Communist Revolution created enough upheaval, however, that I think you can count them out as well.

Our own country is young. Our 200+ years of history still qualifies us as the new kid on the block. For the moment we are dominant, but how long will that last? I am not arrogant enough to assume that the fate that befell those who came before us will not happen to us.

Today I was flipping through the channels and stopped at a show called "The Plague" on the History Channel. It was about the bubonic plague that ravaged much of the known world during the 1300s. Not only did it kill off a huge number of people (I've read estimates of anywhere between 25-50% of the population of Europe died), but it also had a lingering effect on the people who lived through it. Tremendous social upheaval followed. Because of the scarcity of workers, many former upper crust people - nobles, clergy and the like - were forced to work their own fields. Predictable pitiful results followed. Some turned away from agriculture and instead decided to make their living by stealing from others, which was always a popular pastime in the Middle Ages.

Hundreds of years may have passed since The Plague, but our society remains vulnerable to a similar situation. Today we are so dependent on technology and removed from making our living off the land that if we had to start our civilization back over at zero, most of us would not make it. The average American simply does not have the skill set needed to survive. If we listen to the lesson of history, we'll recognize we need to change.

It's not a matter of IF it will happen. It's a matter of WHAT will happen WHEN.

Questions from a child

We got a delivery from Fed-Ex this morning that included many of the elements that are going into our bug out bags (more on those in a future post). My oldest child, The Thinker, was confused.

"Mom, if you and Dad have been married such a long time, why are you just now getting this emergency stuff? Shouldn't you have all of this already?"

I had to answer honestly - we hadn't really thought about being prepared for emergencies until recently. Hopefully prepping will become such an ingrained part of our family culture that when our children go off on their own they will naturally do it. They shouldn't be married for over a decade before they get their act together.

Off to make our bug out bags...

What is Prepping?

Prepping is taking the Boy Scout motto of "Be Prepared" and running with it. The ultimate prepper is one who will be able to respond to and survive in any of a number of situations - earthquake, hurricane, economic meltdown, terrorist attack, etc. In other words, when the you-know-what hits the fan (SHTF, an acronym you'll see a lot on Prepper sites. Also, TEOTWAWKI - the end of the world as we know it), Preppers will be prepared. Everybody else will have to rely on the Federal government. Ask the people of New Orleans how well that works out.

A prepper should not just have a bunch of camping equipment "just in case". Most preppers that I have read about think that survival knowledge is just as important as the having right kind of gear.

How is this different from being a "survivalist"? My understanding of the difference has to do with the extreme measures survivalists usually take. Whereas most preppers blend into society, survivalists tend to make preparedness their complete lifestyle with living off the grid the goal. I'm sure that is pretty simplistic and a matter of debate, but that's how I understand the difference.


Why am I prepping?

I hadn't really thought much about emergency preparedness until late in my fourth pregnancy when I felt the urge to prepare my family for... something. Nothing in particular sparked my concern, I just felt the nudge to prepare. Maybe it was pregnancy hormones, but I tend to think it was the leading of the Holy Spirit.

I have a family that I love dearly and four little souls that depend entirely upon the care that Hubby Dear and I give them. My house and vehicles are valuable, therefore I insure them. It is unlikely that my house will be consumed in a fire or that my car will be totalled in an accident, but I have the insurance on standby so that I can replace them if the unthinkable occurs. How much more precious are the lives of my children? Why would I not do all that I can to insure those lives?

Preparedness seems daunting and there is a lot I have to learn, but I am slowly taking the measures I need to prepare my family for what the future may hold.