Editor’s Note: This post is another entry in the Prepper Writing Contest from Paul S. If you have information for Preppers that you would like to share and possibly win a $300 Amazon Gift Card to purchase your own prepping supplies, enter today!
First: I want to thank, “The Prepper Journal,” for allowing me to enter their writing contest. This gives me a chance to put some thoughts I have been thinking for a long time on paper. This is not going to be a long treatise on how we had to walk to school through the snow up hill both ways.
Next, let me earn the right to have you read my article, by telling you a little about myself.
I am a 75-year-old grandpa of five Wonderful Grandkids. Born, January 17, 1941 as a great-grandson and grandson of pioneers who came west by covered wagon in 1875. I was raised on the family homestead, located on the Palouse Plateau, just north of Moscow, Idaho. The Palouse has some of the richest farmland in the U.S.
My parents and grandparents lived through the Great Depression as people of the soil, meaning we were essentially early grid joiners who used the land for our livelihood. Electricity was established in 1936, phone service, (crank phones.) approximately 1938. No refrigerators or ice boxes or super markets or, or. The closest town, Garfield, Washington, was 6 miles away over twisty, curvy, muddy or dusty dirt roads; with huge mud holes in spring and fall. We were often snowed in for weeks at a time in winter.
Everything we ate had to be grown and preserved off the farm, during the summer. All repairs had to be done on sight, using material at hand, because a trip to town was a half day affair. The closest farm machinery dealer was 9 miles away in Palouse, Washington. I have a degree in Architecture from the University of Idaho; although I spent all of my work life as a test technician in research and development, working for a major truck manufacturer.
When You think of prepping, what is Your mind-set? Do You think of something that might happen maybe in the future? Is the, “Boogeyman,” going to come and steal all of Your stuff?
Prepping is a state of mind
For me Prepping is a state of mind: being prepared for today and tomorrow, and maybe for the future. Look at Your situation right where You are right now and ask Yourself a few questions. You could maybe divide the questions into categories: Man-caused; economic or maybe war – or Natural; earthquake or weather or even cosmic.
If I couldn’t work, how would I live? Do I have enough set aside to get through until I could work? How and what will I eat? Drink? Keep warm? Is my living situation secure? My cousin sells used trailers and motor homes. He sells 3 to 4 units a week to homeless people. My Bride and I just returned from a trip, traveling up the California coast. I didn’t count, but I bet we must have seen 50 to 75 vehicles parked off out-of-the-way, dusty, covered windows; people living in them. Since 2008, millions have lost their work and can’t find a replacement job.
What skills do I have? Can I repair a broken whatever? Can I find out how to repair a broken whatever? How do I find out? Where do I look? I am not suggesting You become a brain surgeon, but I do think spending a little time sitting at the dining room table maybe disassembling a simple hair dryer you purchased or picked up at a garage sale is a great practice. Maybe going on to Google and seeing if You can find information on the process. Learning what tools are needed.
Ask Yourself any question about any situation.. Am I ready? If not, how can I get ready??
You see, it is a mindset.. It is putting Yourself mentally in a situation and seeing if You measure up. It is deciding to spend some time in research, study and practice, instead of whatever society deems necessary for Your attention; whether it’s sports, entertainment or politics, or, or.. If You tell Yourself, I don’t do that, or I can’t do that;; then You will probably become part of the problem instead of part of the solution.
We live in the age of information, but that information is only useful, if You internalize it to the point to where You can call on it and use it if necessary.
The next big earthquake might hit right in the middle of the 3rd quarter… are You ready?