Prepping does not happen overnight. It takes baby steps. Do a little at a time. No extra money you say? Ponder this.... if you stop at McDonald's every morning for a cup of coffee, you spend at least a dollar. That's $ 7 a week. Here, I can buy a gallon of water at Walmart for a dollar. That's 7 gallons and you are well on your way to having your stores in place. Make your coffee at home, take it with you and buy your water!
It can take months, even years to get to where you are comfortable in knowing you are ready for what comes down the pike. The biggest thing is to store what you eat, eat what you store and rotate your food. If you hate brown rice, don't buy it! You can start by aiming to have an extra week's worth of food on hand. Then a month, 3 months, and so on. Set small goals and pat yourself on the back when you reach them. Our goal is to have a year's storage on hand. At any given time it could be a bit more or less depending on the time of year. Food here on the farm can be quite seasonal...we can gather 30 or more eggs come spring yet not even have enough for a pound cake dead winter. Learn to plan and preserve for those times. As I said baby steps...are you ready?
About Us
We are not a fanatical bunch. No underground bunkers here. However, lessons from past natural disasters have taught us to be more self sufficient and ready for whatever may be handed to us. Natural or man made....
Our first hard lesson came in 1989 when hurricane Hugo barreled up the east coast. We live four hours from the coast and yet this storm was so huge, it impacted people hundreds of miles inland. At that time we lived on a dirt road at the end of a power line. The winds brought down too many trees to count, crushing cars and sheds. Power lines were down everywhere and we literally had to cut our way out of our drive and road. We were without power for seven days. We lost everything in our freezers and even had to rely on the kindness of our local fire department to haul in water for our animals.
Fast forward several years to our new homestead. The weather forecast was calling for a severe ice storm. My sister and I had planned to do some Christmas shopping and meet our husbands for dinner in the city. As the day progressed, the storm moved in. We decided to skip dinner and head home. What should have been a 30 minute drive turned into several hours as the roads became a solid sheet of ice. There were no mad dashes to the grocery store just a need to get home and secure the animals. As the night wore on the ice steadily accumulated on power lines and trees. By 1 a.m., you could hear the branches and trees crashing around us and power was lost. Though severe for most, this storm was really only a minor inconvenience for us. Careful planning over the years had us ready. We had plenty of water, food, matches, wood and gas for the generator. We ran it long enough each day to keep the freezers from thawing. Our gas stove was easily lit with matches and soups simmered almost non stop for days. Family came to stay with us. I was even able to bake bread. Store shelves were empty, yet we were totally prepared. Power was restored five days later, but we really never missed it!
There are many reasons to have a food and water reserve. Not just weather, but anything that may interrupt your normal routine. Sickness, injury or job loss are all reasons to have some reserves on hand. So really prepping is not a bad thing, it is a smart thing!
