What level of prepping do you do? (How do I start?)

Something I have come to see is when it comes to being ready for things there is a wide rage of styles, and concerns. Personally I do not judge people for any level prepper but I will say I do not agree with everyone’s view point.

TL;DR

Yeah sorry lots of text! The key points is the advice at the bottom. There are tips for getting started. Also decide what kind of prepper you want to be.

Are you an off the gridder?

No, I used to want to be, but then I realized I like having access to city water and power even if it is not always working. I do like having back up. I do not yet have solar, but want it. I want a battery back up too just in case. I no longer want that off the grid, but I get it. I respect those who can do it. I am more of an Urban Homesteader.

Am I a full on if SHTF Prepper?

That depends on your definition of SHTF. For those who don’t know SHTF mean Shit Hit The Fan. If you mean I lost my job and life got scary? Yes. That was a personal SHTF. Do you mean our country went into a lockdown in 2020 and I wish I was better prepared for it? Yes

If you mean I am waiting for the zombie apocalypse and have waiting for the world to burn? No. I would rather prevent the fire than watch it burn. Would I be ready if there was a full scale revelation? Maybe. I’ll feel better once I get that solar and battery back up. I will be better than some and worse than others.

Do you keep a bug out bag?

No, but mostly because bugging out with the amount of animals I have would be close to impossible. I think people should have bug out bags and plans if they can. I encourage my adult children to have a plan.

We plan to Bug In. We have plans to move livestock to safety if needed and we have emergency supplies and always work to find places to improve.

How long does it take to prep?

That depends on your budget and what you need. It’s okay to not be ready overnight. Start by seeing what you already have, then make a basic plan for what you need. You likely already have extra blankets and candles laying around. Set some aside in a place out of the way but easy to find in the dark.

What is advice you have to get started?

• Start small if you have to. Figure out what you use in a month. Not just food, how much toothpaste do you use? Don’t forget baby and pet needs!
• Choose reusable and better quality when you can.
• Watch for sales! Many stores will have sales like 10 for $10 or buy something and get something else free. Anytime you see something like that, and you will use it and can afford it, get it.
• Many staple dry goods are cheaper than you may realize! Buy in bulk too. Go to the Asian Market if you have one. Buy rice in 25 pound bags. Go bulk box stores like Cosco and Sams and buy larger packages. We buy flour, rice, beans, sugar in 15 to 25 pound bags. Also they have giant boxes of TP.
• When you buy something, if you can afford it, buy 2 or more. ALWAYS ROTATE YOUR STOCK!
• Remember Best by date does not mean expired!
• Buy seasonal, and learn to preserve shelf stable food. Do not waste food if you can! If you have left overs, freeze or can if you will not finish it. Dehydrate fruit and veg, make your own stocks and broths, regrow food scraps.
• Learn a skill! Youtube is free! YouTube has taught me how to crochet, knit, hang drywall, can, butcher my own meat. The possibilities are endless!
• Are you in a city or urban area? See if you can find people with similar interests. You can learn from each other, and may have different capabilities. Make friends with a farmer/gardener/homesteader. Can’t have your own chickens? Maybe someone nearby can sell/trade for eggs. Create your own supply chain.
• Grow food. Even a window garden is something! Herbs are a great small space plant. Harvest them as needed and dehydrate/dry excess to add to your pantry. I have so much oregano I gave away some and a year later my mom has only used half the jar. I easily have a year + for myself too. I also have a plant in my garden.
• Buy seeds not plants. Learn to save seeds too. Also do not let people tell you that you can not grow seeds from food you buy. I bought a butternut squash. Got it on sale but out of season. When I cut it open there were seeds already wanting to grow. So I did. I am now drowning in butternut squash plants! (every mother I know got one for mother’s day!) I will be gifting squash I am sure too! (This is why you make friends! People will be begging you to take produce when they have too much)
• Have hard copies of books. Get a second hand first aid book. Get a book on edible plants in your area, get a basic survival guide. In a real emergency you may not have internet, or you may have limited charge on your phone. It is good to have this info handy. Bonus, get herbal medicine books! Herbs are easy to grow and peppermint is magic!
• Learn to forage! There could be a wealth of food and medicine you are overlooking that would cost you nothing! Every year I love to harvest Mulberries, Dewberries, wild onion, and dandelion root. I also found all kinds of other things local to me and free! I take it home and preserve it to add to my pantry.
• Do not feel like you have to buy a lot of all new stuff! Again, you might already have some of this. Ask a buy nothing group if you have one! Maybe someone has an extra sleeping bag, or a camp stove they don’t want! Check thrift stores! I have found bread makers, camp stoves, canners, good quality clothing, books.
• Do not compare yourself to what other’s are doing. Their goals may be different than yours. Their needs are likely different. Do not let mean people on the internet make you doubt yourself. Every prepping and canning group I am in people can be so mean or rude or ask why you want to do something. I am canned coffee today. Before I did I had 100 people tell me to just get a french press and a camp stove. That was not what I wanted, I wanted caffeine levels on canned coffee. I canned that coffee anyway!

Difference between hoarding and being prepared

There has been a lot of talk about empty shelves, supply chain, and hording.

Here are some things I learned over the last few years from Covid, and the Texas Freeze:

• Always have a way to keep yourself warm/cool in extreme weather.
• Always have emergency supplies (I will go over that more in a later post but feel free to refer to the CDC.) https://emergency.cdc.gov/planning/index.asp
• Always have ready to eat food, drinking water, and toilet water (for flushing) on hand.
• Have emergency medical supplies! (medications, first aid kit, and a basic first aid book)
• Don’t just make an emergency hoard, just keep several months of supplies on hand and rotate as you use!
• Date like EVERYTHING
• Also TP! When you don’t have it but need it, it is gold!!!

My story

So we all remember 2020. It was a rough year. At the time we had 5 people living at home. We bulk shopped regularly because it is cheaper and less waste. When Covid hit, we had purchased a month+ worth of supplies for most things. Things like milk and fresh produce we only got what we could use before it went bad.

So when the first lock down hit, we were good…RIGHT? Well yeah mostly. Turns out I misjudged how full the box of TP was. we had 4 rolls for 2 bathrooms and 5 people. So what did we do? We tried so hard to get a TP delivery. Everyone was sold out! Even Amazon! We went easy on the TP and my dad thankfully had a few rolls to spare.

Sadly February 2020, my husband lost his grandmother. We ended up inheriting his grandmother’s house. Grandma’s house is 3 hours away and Grandma was a hoarder. So the husband started spending a lot of time there trying to clean and do repairs. As it was, we could not move in. Thankfully he was able to get TP there (small town) and we never actually ran out.

Then the Texas freeze hit…. We lost power for 7 days. (I think) It was hard. someone had left a box of puppies on our door shortly before that. So we had 5 people, 3 cats, and 3 dogs crammed in a living room. We had a gas stove there so we were able to heat that room and cook (and coffee!!!) We had food, but I recall supplies were running low and I was rushing to cook as much from the smaller freezer as I could to avoid loosing it. Moral was low.

I vowed to never be this unprepared again!

Almost as soon as we had power back I started working on putting together a 3 month supply of food and everything else needed. My target goal was to support all of us for 3 months if needed.

Eventually we moved into grandma’s house. There we stocked our pantries. Food, water, allergy medicine, TP, Pet food!

I hit my 3 months goal, and we started looking into other types of supplies. Educating my self on local foraging, looked into raising my own meat, planting a bigger garden.

Then I lost my job in Aug 2021

okay so I rage quit but trust me…. there are reasons and everyone agreed it was for the best.

I am the only income for this house, so this was our own little disaster. I was out of work for 2 months. We thankfully had a savings, and we thankfully had our well stocked pantry. I learned that I was right, we had about 3 months of supplies and learned where we need improvement.

What we do and recommend is having a well stocked pantry and some emergency supplies.

Are people like you the reason the shelves empty?

I don’t think so. We did not go out and buy 3 months of stuff all at once. We buy only when on sale and a little bit at a time. We also grow and can a lot of our own food now. We personally only buy the last of something on a shelf if we really need it. We don’t buy things we won’t use.

The people who are the problem were the ones who bough 17,700 bottles of had sanitizer hoping to price gouge. Now we have supply chain issues.

I hope to go into all of this more in better depth to help other’s be ready for disaster. Covid taught us weather is not the only disasters that can destroy lives.

Updating, reviving, and realigning

I have been super busy and have learned so much about homesteading, sustainable living, and zero waste. I’ve been so busy doing I forget this even existed until a family member reminded me.

Looking over things I see how far I came from where I was that I need to clean this up! I have so many new things to share!

Here are some highlights to come!

• I now have a cool garden!
• Planted some trees
• Working on inground composting (long term and short term)
• Learned to can.
• Became obsessed with dehydration.
• Really I’m just obsessed with food storage.
• Getting rabbits in two weeks
• That’s just off the top of my head!

Stay tuned got to remove all the things that no longer line up with my views. Please note, I no longer support any MLM but I do still use essential oils.