Recently, I came across a website
for ex-Mormons who were lamenting the time, effort, and money they sunk into
fulfilling the church’s teaching of long-term food storage.
There were many stories of throwing
out large amounts of expired food, both for themselves and deceased relatives.
Of course, the faithful in the Mormon Church will tell you that if you have to
throw out expired food, whether you have ever experienced an emergency or not,
you have not been doing it right. You should, for example, already be grinding
your own wheat and making your own bread. You shouldn’t wait for the grid to
fall before you start doing that.
I have to say that I haven’t gotten
around to grinding my own wheat yet on regular basis, but otherwise I have
fallen into a pretty good routine of using the stuff I have stored before it
goes bad. Still, the ex-Mormons’ comments had me thinking whether I would
someday look back and regret the time, effort, and money that I have spent on
emergency preparedness. What if nothing ever happens that leads to me really
needing a hand-cranked wheat grinder to survive or breaking out an AR-15 to
defend my home?
My answer is that even though the
biggest emergency I have experienced is the occasional brief power outage, my
preparedness efforts have already benefited me in more ways than I can probably
enumerate. One of my first efforts was putting an emergency bag in my car.
Almost immediately, I found that I was using it. I would need to cut something,
and there in my bag would be a knife. If I cut myself, I would have a bandage,
or I might be stuck somewhere waiting and get hungry or thirsty; there would be
some food and water in the bag. I also had a change of clothes, which proved
useful on many occasions when I tore or soiled some clothes that would
otherwise have required that I go back home to change. Additionally, my job
would sometimes send me out of town overnight at a moment’s notice, and with my
bag, I didn’t have to go home and get anything. So, with my regular use of the
emergency bag, my first problem that I had to deal with was making sure I kept
my supplies in my bag from running out.
Keeping up a good food supply at
home has been extremely valuable and has saved a lot of money, although I did
throw out some food early on before I became acutely aware of expiration dates.
Now I am fairly obsessed with expiration dates. Any grocery item I buy, whether
it is to be for long-term storage or not, I check the expiration date. I have
discovered that some stores sell items that have already been on the shelves
for too long and have a far shorter expiration date than you would expect. I’ve
learned going to a higher volume store, like Walmart, can usually fetch better
dates. Even for items like milk and bread, I’ve learned that if you check toward
the back of the shelf, you can usually get a better date. As a single person,
that’s important for me because it’s hard for me to use up a loaf of bread or
gallon of milk before it goes bad. The benefit to my emergency preparedness
efforts is that I have reduced waste and saved money that I can put toward
buying longer term food items.
It used to be that if I came home
after a hard days work and realized I had nothing in the fridge or freezer that
would make a meal, I would order pizza or go back out and pick up some fast
food. However, I now always have something I can put together to make a meal,
and a pretty good one at that. For single people, this also comes in handy if
you are sick and have no one to look after you.
I have learned a lot about guns. I
used to be one of “those” who didn’t see a need for a gun and, frankly, was a
little scared to have a gun in the house. However, once I bought a 9 mm,
learned some safety guidelines, and fired it at a range a few times, I became
very comfortable with it. I began to see that a gun is not going to fire itself
and, if you aren’t an idiot, a gun is not going to harm you.
Spending on guns, however, still
bothered me, because I knew I would use the food regardless, but what if I
never need the gun? The thing is, if you take care of a gun, it will last
pretty much forever, and it will keep its value. The guns I see for sale in the
pawn shop don’t look much cheaper than new ones. So, in addition to home
protection, a gun can be a way of converting paper money that could become
worthless into something tangible that would become exponentially more valuable
in a grid down situation. I used to scoff at people who had large gun
collections, because it seems to me about four or five would cover most any
scenario and you can only shoot one at a time. Dual wielding might be fun in a
video game, but I don’t think it’s the best tactical choice in real life. If we
are left to fend for ourselves, there will probably be no better barter item
than a gun.
I live in a sketchy neighborhood,
and my home was broken into twice. That was in my pre-emergency preparedness
days. No one has broken into my house since, which has been about four years
now. If they did, they would be making a very bad choice, I guarantee you,
especially if I am home at the time, but even if I am not.
Just to cite one example of improved
security, which cost only about $30, was putting in a pet door. Before the
burglary, I left my dog in the back yard while I was away. However, the last
time I was burglarized, the intruder came in through a front window, so my dog
had no way to stop him. Now, if anyone approaches the front of my house and
makes any noise, a living burglar alarm will go off from inside.
I also improved my home security
team by adding a second dog. If you are allergic to dogs or just can’t have one
for some reason, spend about three or four bucks for some “Beware of the dog”
signs. Even in a desperate time, I would bet that any intruder would see that
and be inclined to pick another house.
Some people may envision that they
will be hunkered down in their home or retreat when the grid is down or have a
crew to stand guard if venturing out is required. However, I think a more
likely future scenario than all-out anarchy is that crime will get a lot worse.
Regardless, you will still, in that case, have some incorruptible canine guards
for the house while you are away, which will be invaluable.
I have learned many useful skills,
such as making my own laundry soap. This soap costs a fraction of buying it and
works just as well. I have not bought commercial laundry soap in more than
three years, probably saving myself at least $200. I probably spend less time
making it than I would by actually going to the store to buy it every time I
need it. I make it by grating up a bar of Fels Naptha soap and
boiling it in water until to dissolves. Then I put about four gallons of water
in a five-gallon bucket, add the soap, add a cup of washing soda, and add a cup
of Borax. Let it sit
overnight, and you’ve got about four and half gallons of laundry detergent for
the cost of about $2.
When I first started doing this,
Borax was the only one of ingredients I could find in a store. I ordered the soap
and washing soda through the local Ace Hardware. Now I have noticed all three
ingredients are now available at my small neighborhood grocery store, as well
as the larger Krogers farther away. If you can’t find it, I would try checking
somewhere like Ace, where they can have it shipped without charge. You can buy
it straight from online, but the shipping costs would reduce your savings. It’s
funny to me when I see people showing videos online of their stored items and
they have all these commercial laundry soap containers taking up space when
they could buy these ingredients, store them in a five-gallon bucket, and
probably have a lifetime supply.
Overall, the greatest benefit of
emergency preparedness is that I have become a more forward-thinking person. My
job requires me to go certain places and have certain things, and previously I
would not always have all the things I needed. However, I now think farther
ahead and don’t wait until I get there to see that I don’t have something. For
example, just this past weekend I took a few moments to check my car’s spare
tire to make sure it was pumped up and to make sure the jack and all its parts
were in working order. Five years ago, I would have been checking that only
when I was broken down on the side of the road with a flat tire.
Another thing I did early on, which
cost nothing, was storing up water in my house. I buy orange juice in clear
plastic bottles, and whenever one gets empty, I clean it, fill it with water,
and stash it somewhere in the house. It wasn’t very long after I started doing
it that I woke up one morning and there was no water. I found out later there
had been a problem with the line nearby and the city was working on it. I was
lamenting that I was going to have to go to work without a shower or brushing
my teeth, when I suddenly remembered I had a stash of water. So I was able to
wash up in the sink and brush before I left. This made for a much better day at
work.
Perhaps most important, I have
become a healthier person. I believe one of the most overlooked aspects of
gridless survival is physical fitness. It’s going to take a lot of work to
survive. When the grid is down, I would put my money on a physically fit person
who has done nothing to prepare over an obese person with a houseful of guns
and food. Although I can’t say it has been entirely the reason, the thought of
trying to survive in an anarchist environment has definitely been a motivator
in the fact that I have quit smoking, quit drinking, and started working out
almost daily.
I could keep going, but I will sum
it by saying that having a preparedness mindset has changed my life quite a bit
for the better. I am grateful to the many people who have posted informative
YouTube videos, blogs such as this one, and written books. I know many people
think we sit around fearing the future, but I feel very much the contrary. I
feel better about the future every time I do something to be more ready for it.
Putting effort into ensuring that you survive is a sign of good mental health,
because it means you have a love of life, even if it gets bad.
From the Survival Blog
No comments:
Post a Comment