DaddyO's Prepping Journey
The Cyber Monday Part 1 thread on Main St has had quite a few references to stocking up on food, fuel and various other items and on the face of it, this is good. There are however, quite a few things that go into food storage, survival prepping and whatever else you want to call "Being ready when the balloon goes up".
Let me say that I like everyone else have my way of doing things and it may be a bit different than you read on this blog or that book or heard from your neighbor down the street. I have been at the prepping game for about 13-14 ears. I was raised by farmers who grew and canned everything under the sun and then some.
About 3 years ago my wife and I started a company to cater to the angst generated by the turmoil and unrest that was coming from the elections and the prospect of the Government and the FED ginning up the economy and all that we have seen play out since. We saw pain in the marketplace and were poised to place salve on the wounds being created by the turmoil, hence we started a business to help people through the pain and we were able to share our experience strength and hope for being able to live through any uncertainty and storms that were appearing on the horizon.
We are now in the final stages of watching the storm clouds gather overhead.
We started prepping in earnest back in the late eighties and early nineties because we lived in a hurricane prone area and wanted to be able to survive without any help from the gov't. When Y2K became the talk of the town, we again redoubled our efforts to make sure that we had the ability to feed our family and protect ourselves should the world end on New Years Eve 2000. Well, as we all know that night turned out to be a non event that cost around 60 billion for industry to fix. A great way to generate revenue, looking back.
In 2005 when three hurricanes hit FLA in a 3 week span, we found ourselves very well prepared. We were without power for almost a month. We had a generator that provided power for the well pump and small fridge in the garage, lights at night and a little TV before bed. For the most part our lives were not disrupted to the extreme as we had been living a lifestyle that didn't need much outside input to make it go.
We have over the course of our marriage, lived a no frills kinda Flintstonesque lifestyle, we call it prudent living. We have our own source of drinking water that is off the grid. We have several Berkeys in the event we have to take water out of the "pond". We live in the country on land that could completely sustain us should the supply lines go down for food, fuel and power.
We have learned over the years to can our own food, both dry and wet canning. Wet canning can be divide into pressure and water bath. There is dry canning with a pump and seal for dry goods in smaller quantities for things like powdered milk. There is the Food Saver type storage device for dry goods and foods you want to freeze like fresh cuts of game and fish. We have been grinding our own fresh flour from chemical free Montana Golden 86 wheat for at least 20 years. A side benefit is a reduced number of colds and sickness from the high vitamin content in our fresh flour. My children are all in the late teens or early twenties and have never taken a course of antibiotics in their life. They were raised on fresh ground flour and farm fresh food. We only grind enough to use the day we need flour. We get fresh eggs from our chickens and buy a side of hormone free beef and have it processed locally.
And the list goes on...
This thread is for anyone who wants to share their efforts, trials, victories and to ask questions about the finer details of putting back enough stuff to get through the tough times that may lay ahead.
DaddyO
