Prepping and Survival skills come in all shapes and sizes...

and little things can have big impacts.  But you have to be observant to find your weaknesses and then solve the problem.  Ok, so now you're thinking i'm going to go on about getting an AR15 and how to clean it top to bottom, or enrolling in some Glock commando training camp or something... WRONG.

How about bread?  Yes, plain old simple bread. Baking bread is a survival skill!  Let me explain.  Now I'm sure my mom could bake bread.  In fact, I remember her baking rolls from scratch on holidays as a child, but I never learned.  Who cared, bread came from the store, it was so cheap you could buy a fresh loaf weekly just to have it handy even if you didn't eat it.  Then one day as I was in my pantry and i'm thinking  "I've got tuna, and peanut butter, stew, and soup, this and that and we can have sandwiches and this meal and that meal and shelter in place for...  wait.  Week three of a crisis there will be no bread!". A chink in the armor!

The next day I'm on allrecipes.com looking up bread baking. Easy as pie, I've never baked bread before but... a quick trip to Meijer's and i got this.  Yeah, right.  There must be 50 different types of flour.  So an hour reading packages in the store, and I get back home with 3 different kinds.  There I am with flour everywhere kneading till my arms hurt.  I end up with golden brown sticks in the bottom of my loaf pans. "Oh yeah, I got this" I muttered "were gonna starve".  Undaunted, I spend the next 3 weekends studying and trying, and trying, and learning.  And Now FREEDOM!!! I am no longer a slave to "The Grid's" bread masters....

Ok, freedom is a bit dramatic, and in truth for some this may be a small accomplishment.   But when it comes down to feeding my family during a crisis I have learned a skill who's value can not be measured.  And most importantly I have learned at a time of my choosing and when the cost of failure is cheap.

That is Prepping...

and just for the record, yes I can field strip my AR blindfolded too.

"I'll just come over to your house"...

If you ever want to insult a prepper, say those 7 magic words.  Honestly, I'm touching the "third rail" of preppers and non preppers relationship, but i need to enlighten people on how this statement is taken, and i need to vent a little too.  And if your feelings get hurt, so be it.

I, along with many of my prepper friends have the same limited financial resources you have, and it is at great personal sacrifice that we allocate our time and money toward preparedness and self sufficiency.   Maybe its growing a garden and canning, or weapons training, spending time fixing up that old cabin, or just buying food and other supplies, but i assure you we would rather drive a new car, or take a cruise, or have the newest flat screen TV and sit in front all day watching all the Direct TV's premium channels.  We choose not to because we believe lives are in the balance.  To paraphrase the movie The Core, "I'm not trying to save the whole world, thats overwhelming.  I'm just trying to save 4 of them".  If you're not sure you are one of them, don't count on me.

That doesn't mean we can't work together, or i won't help you plan now.  But as my Mom use to say "you have to bring more to the table then an appetite".  If a prepper takes the time to talk to you about the idea of preparedness, then they care enough about you to try and save your life.  Infact, thats what they are doing.  Don't insult them by saying "i'll just come to your house".  Trust me, If they didn't care, they wouldn't have mentioned it at all.  But don't make the mistake of thinking they can actually take care of you in a crisis.

Lets take the crisis out of the equation for a second and reverse the situation.  You go to the grocery store and buy food and i decide on my own that i'm going to come and eat half of your food at every meal.  You get a Big Mac and I want half.  Oh, and I want some fries too...  Remember that last slice of pizza?  I ate it!   and you really didn't want that last Coke, did you? You may love me like family, but spending twice as much at the store or getting half the food will eventually strain your budget, your nerves, and our relationship. You would get insulted and angry.  Well that is exactly how we feel.

Now take your hurt feelings right down to the nearest store and buy a case of water, a case of beef stew, a flash light, and a can opener.   I just saved your life.

What is "prepping"?

Prepping is not about underground bunkers, or thousands or rounds of ammunition, or a garage full of MREs. "Prepping" at its simplest is time shifting.

Let me say that again... Prepping is about time shifting.

Prepping is about performing tasks, acquiring goods, products, resources, and or tools, and gaining or learning skills at a time of convenience, low cost, or availability.  No mater if its a snow storm, or the Zombie apocalypse, the realization that there may come a time where we encounter a "disruption of normal services" must be faced.

The first question becomes do we concern ourselves with preparing at all, or do we believe the risk so minimal that its not worth it.  If we choose to mitigate the risk to ourselves and our loved ones, then we are faced with an assortment of levels from which to choose.  It can be as easy as keeping a flash light, a couple of cans of Chunky Soup, and a case of bottled water, or as complex as an "off grid" self sufficient survival compound. The decision on how far to go is entirely up to you.

Personally, I have developed my prepping philosophy around a "extended disruption of service" event.  I believe we as humans have a natural affinity towards social order and a societal structure that will prevail and thus the chaos of any catastrophic event and the panic that follows will eventually be extinguished by cooler heads.  My philosophy has dictated I plan for a self supportive existence without the external societal support for a 6 to 9 month period.  I will go deeper into specific solutions as time goes on, but I believe my urban environment limits the ability to grow your own food, and thus it limits what I can realistically and effectively prep for.  To save my own sanity i can neither worry about nor focus on a TEOTWAWKI type event.  But i can plot and execute a plan for an earth quake, Hurricane Sandy or Katrina,  a 2003 black out, Terrorist attack, Social collapse, or other such event, and it gives me comfort to know I have done so for my loved ones.

Welcome

I'm Ray.  In my blog I will attempt to share all the useful (and probably some useless) bits of information, knowledge, and data that i have amassed in relationship to preparedness, urban survival, and "crisis management" on an individual and personal scale.  I am by no means an expert, So while i do take pride in sharing this info with you, I take no pride in authorship.  Disagree, discuss, argue, and add on if you choose, I only share my humble thoughts and opinions, and what I have learned in hopes that it will help someone else as many have helped me.


About me:  I've been what is now fashionably called a "Prepper" since 1998 as I started taking steps to ensure the safety and security of my family with the Y2K looming.  More honestly I learned the art or preparedness from my parents.  They were both "Depression" babies raised in the south, so we always had a well stocked pantry.  Mom would send me to the basement to get a can or jar and say "move the rest forward". When we put up groceries it was always "put the new ones in the back".  I learned FIFO (first in, first out) inventory management before i could read it.  Now at age 50, knowing my family is depending on me, preparedness is not an option, its my responsibility.