Any glance at the news should have people wondering "what is next?" Between earthquakes, volcanos, flooding, drug resistant disease, ISIS cells in the US, etc. many folks are facing some really challenging times. WTSHTF can be a massive event like Nepal, or an individual event like job loss, health problems or a car accident. Prepping can be very small like a little extra food, water and needed meds to full-on off-grid survival mode. The threat level is being raised on all military bases as you read this. This is as broad a topic as can be imagined, but all comments, opinions and viewpoints are welcome. If you have any recommendations, please post when you can.
I'll start with how I am looking at either a purchased or built from scratch greenhouse.
www.pennandcordsgarden.com/greenhouses.html
These are the full range from $150 through many thousands of dollars.
I've got a backyard garden, but no way is my entire lot even big enough to grow enough food for our whole family. We can enough food every year to get us through the winter: spaghetti sauce, pizza sauce, fresh fruit, veggies, jam, and more, but we have to get most of the ingredients for that from farmer's markets so we're dependent upon others to provide for our needs. Hubby and I are both pretty handy, can repair most things around the house. He's even re-upholstered a wingback chair himself!
Big picture, I don't worry about it too much. If there's a disaster, we've got enough food to last a while. If our water, heat, or electricity gets cut off, that's a game changer. I don't think we have too many natural disasters to worry about here fortunately, except for a pandemic as Denver is a pretty major airport hub. Health issues are always inevitable; we take decent care of ourselves and have good insurance.
Still, it's always good to be prepared by practicing family evacuations, setting up plans for where to meet if something happens while the family is separated at work and school, etc.
"Now, more than ever, the illusions of division threaten our very existence. We all know the truth: more connects us than separates us. But in times of crisis the wise build bridges, while the foolish build barriers. We must find a way to look after one another as if we were one single tribe.” -King T'Challa, Black Panther
The truth is incontrovertible. Malice may attack it. ignorance may deride it, but in the end, there it is. ~Winston Churchill
An interesting number we came across last year was 1 million calories per person per year. That is about 2740 calories per day under stressful conditions. Few people have the means of growing, raising, somehow providing that number on any sort of sustainable basis. It would take a combination of stored, grown, raised and acquired to achieve that.
I consider myself a reasonable prepper. Always try to keep enough food and water for a couple week. I have run into some people who don't even have a couple days worth of food in the house and wouldn't be able to eat if fast food and restaurants shut down.
Thomas Sowell: There are no solutions, just trade-offs.
Yeah! Or even meet at a local restaurant or bar or whatever to bat some stuff around!
My personal opinion is that prepping cannot be done effectively in a vacuum. Thus far we've done most of our planning with the aid of sources like Backwoods Home magazine and the survival podcast for example, but I think building ties within one's own community is really a much better way to go.
Thanks cydl.If anyone is interested in a meet up at a local restaurant, bar, park area for a meal or whatever please post and we'll see what we can work out.