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.

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