Jan12010
Preparedness Rule #1
This post is short and simple. The #1 rule of preparedness is:
Do your best where you are with what you have.
If you don’t live in the country, have access to acreage for vegetable gardens, a fruit orchard and a pond stocked with fish, well, most of us don’t. If you don’t have a spare bedroom or an outbuilding to store your supplies, you’re not alone. It’s easy to become discouraged when long-time preppers, or survivalists, talk about their stash of hundreds of buckets of wheat and their expertise at tanning animal hides and making soap from scratch. If you believe preparedness to be important to the welfare of your family, please don’t give up now!
Do your best... If funds just aren’t there, invest in knowledge, research, and learning new skills. Network online or in real life with others who are like-minded. Browse through these Foxfire books and download the articles you’re interested. At some point be sure to print out copies in case you ever need the information during an electrical outage. Have scheduled weekly, “Preparedness Pow-Wows”, with your significant other. Each week discuss a different, “What if?” scenario and how you and your family might respond. You’ll probably come up with a list of supplies you’ll need, but just keep the list handy as you visit garage and estate sales and thrift shops. Just focus on doing your best and don’t compare yourself with others.
…where you are… Millions of Americans live in apartments, condos, and mobile and patio homes. If you have made preparedness a goal, don’t let anything stand in your way, especially not your home’s square footage.
Your homestead doesn't have to be huge.
Vegetables thrive using a square foot gardening approach and thousands of moms grow small vegetable plants and herbs in pots and other containers. With an inexpensive dehydrator, you can easily dehydrate huge amounts of fruits and vegetables that are, then, easier to store. Eliminate what you don’t need, and then use that extra space for the food and supplies you’re accumulating. I know of at least one family who rents a small storage unit for keeping extra garden and hand tools, some 55-gallon water barrels and bulkier items. Be creative!
…with what you have. No two families are alike in their needs or circumstances. Only you can determine what is feasible and what can realistically be accomplished. Try listing all your prepping goals and prioritizing them in A, B, and C categories, using whatever criteria suits your needs, e.g. most urgently needed, least to most expensive. Focus on achieving the ’A’ category goals first, and be sure to set a timeline. It will feel great as you check off each item and realize how far you’ve come since January 1, 2010.
© 2010, thesurvivalmom. All rights reserved.
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Why Getting in Shape Should be Part of Your Apocalypse Preparations
Not only should endurance and strength be of concern but if one needs
Why Getting in Shape Should be Part of Your Apocalypse Preparations
I want/need to lose about 35 pounds want to get to or under 200 for my
Why Getting in Shape Should be Part of Your Apocalypse Preparations
I only noticed a handfull of truly obese "characters" on the show. Man
How-to: Storing food in buckets
I've been stockpiling Idahoan potatoes and such, and wonder how to bes
Why Getting in Shape Should be Part of Your Apocalypse Preparations
This article really hits home for me. I started doing some cardio work
zophiel
Amen! I always say that every little thing helps. Every bit of knowledge, every can of jam I make, every little skill I add, every time I workout, it counts. It leaves me better off than I was before. Anything that adds to the brain, muscles, callouses or stores helps. It gets me a little more secure than my neighbors. And above all, get out of debt and stay out! ^__^
TheSurvivalMom
Anyone, anywhere can take steps to become more self-reliant, and you're right. You're better off with the knowledge and skills than you were before. None of this goes to waste, especially when we pass all this along to our kids and grandkids. You're right about the debt, too. It cripples families and nations alike.
Ravenwolf31
I got three on my blog for this year. 1. Continue with my preps, 2. Oragnize them, and 3. get more exercise.
TheSurvivalMom
I've found that once you get into the swing of things, preparedness becomes second nature. I worry about it a lot less, and that makes it easier to focus on what I would still like to do. Thanks for the comment!
LizLong
We ripped out some ugly plants that were a border around the patio and plan on planting herbs there. It's a nice compact area that's already set up for growing things. All those nice non-hybrid seeds I bought from Seed Savers Exchange aren't going to do me a darn bit of good unless I learn what to do to not kill them once I plant them!
I'm not a gardener, but I did have fun finding all kinds of funky seeds at Seed Savers. We will have red carrots next year! And, since they're non-hybrid, I can collect the seeds and we can have them for the years after as well. If I don't totally kill them all the first try….
Our county has classes to learn more about gardening, which I am going to take this spring, and has composters and water barrels (with a class on using the water barrels) available for at or near cost. The local nurseries, gardening centers, and even (sometimes) the hardware stores also have classes available to help you learn more.
TheSurvivalMom
What a coincidence! Just yesterday my husband ripped out a ton of this ground cover plant we had in the backyard and said he would be planting herbs instead. When he does, I'm going to get my dehydrator standing at the ready because I hate having to buy a fresh herb for a recipe and then watch as it goes bad in the refrigerator. Dehydrated herbs cost just pennies and you can grow and stock up on the ones you use the most. I'll suggest he visit the Seed Savers website. Thanks for the suggestion!
LizLong
I got some really pretty snap dragons, too, for the kids. And I swear (cross my heart) that I WILL actually start using the dehydrator! Including on the herbs, if I don't kill them before they grow big enough. (Fingers crossed on that one….)
TheSurvivalMom
What kind of dehydrator do you have, and is it stored in a handy location? I know that whenever I have to hunt something down or if it's complicated to use, I never use it. My little NESCO dehydrator is a workhorse, and I can use just one or two trays if I only have a small amount of food to dehydrate.
LizLong
I'm not sure. It's the one Costco sold a few months ago. They usually have pretty good quality items and we've never had a problem with them. I figured I could buy that one, or try to do research and end up forgetting. It's not too hard to get to. I just pulled it out of the basement. I got a dozen HUGE pears from the grocery store (thank you for shopping with us, and OOPS! we overbought on these) last week. They should be ripe by now, so I'll need to try it now. I can use just a few as well. I think it's a NESCO, but I'm not sure without looking. I bought the vacuum sealer from Costco last week so I can seal them as soon as items are done now.
juju_mommy
Great post! We live in a small, 2 bedroom mobile home with 2 toddlers. We are definitely short on space! But we rent for dirt cheap from friends, can pretty much do what we want with the place and the half acre we are on and so we make do until the day we can buy a place of our own. I have those rubbermaid type storage bins stacked in each corner of our bedroom for storage. I use them to store my food and non-food supplies. They are neatly labled. I also sacrifice a kitchen table (we sit at the "bar" instead) so that I could put some stainless steel shelves (from Lowe's) for extra food storage of the every-day type things. My lastest light bulb moment was this: I was searching for a way to store buckets of bulk grains that I plan to order soon and realized that I could pull the sectional couch up some from the wall and store the buckets behind the couch! Most wouldn't even realize it was back there and since the sectional we have is pretty light, we can easily get behind it to the buckets when we need too. I make the best use of the space that I have. It takes work, organization, etc. but it's worth the effort IMHO.
TheSurvivalMom
You know, Julie, there are pros and cons to living in smaller spaces. In my old kitchen, I could stand at my dishwasher and put away about 90% of all the clean dishes. Now, my kitchen is bigger, but you know what? It's just made it harder to organize things, and I find I hold on to unnecessary items just because I can put them out of sight. Oh, we sit at the bar, too! I used to laugh at myself whenever I would tell the kids to go sit on a barstool! It kind of sounded like we lived in a pub or something.
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Clair
This is so overwhelming. How does one get started?
TheSurvivalMom
Hi Clair! Welcome to my blog and the world of preparedness. If you feel overwhelmed and even panicky, let me assure you that all of us went through that stage. The important part is to become educated and then take baby steps until it becomes second nature. I've tried hard with this blog to not overwhelm or scare my readers and still give plenty of small tips and suggestions for become more prepared and self-reliant. Feel free to email me with questions, and I'll be happy to work with you one on one.
LizLong
Personally, I took one area at a time. I started with first aid because it looked the easiest to me. I picked up items everyone already knows – band aids, neosporin, peroxide, etc – until I had a good stash. Then I started on a more in -depth kit. I added blood absorbing things like QuickClot and sanitary napkins that aren't in most first aid kids, braces (knee, elbow, wrist) that I might not usually have, etc. I kept researching more and adding to it (SAM splints and finger splints) until I felt that I had most of what was advised. Then I moved on to camping / survival items. One area at a time, so I didn't get totally overwhelmed, because I was at first. Once I had most of one category done, it made me feel more comfortable and confident starting on the next area. Also, I ordered seeds and did yard work at seasonally-appropriate times.
Just like TheSurvivalMom says – baby steps!
juju_mommy
Clair – I felt the same way when I started becoming "aware" and wanting to prep. The main way I started was to just pick up extra canned goods and staples at the store when shopping. This is a good idea no matter what. I'd always shopped ahead, stocked up on sales, etc. but a desire to prep just encouraged me to continue and step-up my efforts. The other way is to start emergency kits. 1) For the home: You can take a plain old tupperware bin thing stock with supplies (basic things but expand depending the emergencies that you expect you may face in your area 2) For the car: Stock a backpack with first aid supplies, flashlight, extra set of clothes and shoes, an easy-to-fix meal, bottle fo water, pocket knife, tarp, etc. and keep it in your trunk for emergencies. Every time you make a shopping trip, pick up an item on your supply list to add to your kits.
Remember, IMHO, prepping is more a mental thing to me. Its a way you THINK. It's being aware of the possibilities. Not worrying yourself to death over them but not being nieve…. Take it one step at a time.
TheSurvivalMom
Those are excellent suggestions, Julie! Small preparedness steps add up in no time. Thanks for sharing your experience and knowledge.