I know a guy who entered into the prep world maybe 6 years ago, and boy did he ever. He absorbed every bit of information from all of the alt news websites and prep blogs, ran up his credit cards over the course of a year buying up stacks of supplies and guns and knew without a shadow of a doubt that SHTF would be happening in the next year (but surely not more than two). One year passed as he bought more storage food and other supplies, two years passed and then three. Fast forward to year five and he began selling his guns and preps as other priorities in his life came into play. Now 6 years later he is no better off than when he started and probably still has quite a bit of debt. Too much preparedness and not enough balance / perspective and this is what you get.
The story above is not dissimilar from many out there, folks who jump out of the gate at full speed gobbling up supplies and knowledge almost in the hopes that some sort of catestrophic event will take place in order to justify their actions. In contrast if my body of work, in the form of many years of preparedness, results in no action take and dusty emergency supplies I’ll happily take it. That would mean that my family never had to endure the hardships which I was preparing for, that I got it wrong and those who live their lives only worrying about the next day were right (or lucky). Yet as demonstrated by the hurricane that is pounding the gulf coast as I type this and those who will be facing lengthened power outage / bugout situations, the need for balanced preparedness comes around more often than many like to acknowledge.
The Need for a Baseline
There are basic prep needs that are readily known to most in the community, some people probably meet these needs without even calling themselves preppers as most are/should be common sense. While it won’t require one tuning into Alex Jones and maxing out the Visa card at the prepper convention, a certain mindset and acknowledgement that one could end up in at bind is necessary. Those facing the aforementioned hurricane would have done good to have a few days of food and water, a decent first aid kit stocked with necessary meds and a vehicle with a full tank of gas / a few extra full gasoline cans. Basic stuff. Folks actually can go from zero to having a good baseline in one afternoon with a couple hundred bucks and a trip to Costco.
Analysis and Prioritization
This is where things get a little sticky and folks tend to go overboard. What are you preparing for? “Everything! EMP, Nuclear War, Supervolcano, Martial Law, Drought, Stock Market Crash and ohbytheway that thing were the poles reverse.” While I must admit there have been a few times where I got spun up (if you recall Ebola) for the most part I’d like to believe things remained practical with respect to preparedness around here. Sure one can acknowledge the EMP threat and war game it, but to dwell on it seems like a waste of time and energy. What we don’t want is to be like my friend where things spiral out of control and we get burned out in a sprint, disappointed and disollusioned when the big one doesn’t take place. If you’ve been around this for a while and have checked some other blogs / alt news sites you can go back 10 years and without exception predicitons of calamity / collapse are in no short supply. “There is no way we get through _______ (whatever year) without a major collapse and here are the key indicators!” 5 years later…
In order to avoid all of this it becomes essential to conduct an analysis of YOUR situation and prioritize accordingly.
- What are the biggest high probability threats in your local area?
- What resources do you have: Time, Money, Friends etc?
- How can you mitigate the top 3 threats via 2 courses of action?
- How can you monitor if those threats are going to manifest themselves?
- What’s the 6 month, 1 year, 3 and 5 year plan to shore up things, acknowledging all at once is not an option?
- Taking all of the above into account, is there a numbered checklist which prioritizes efforts toward the goal?
The above is just a sample I came up with but as an example, my threat list would include forest fires and being snowed in without power for a few days or weeks at time. Flooding, hurricanes and tornadoes not so much. Based on my threat analysis I would begin to prioritize and plan in case I had to take action..and on it goes.
The Long Game
I believe one of the shortfalls that we all can fall victim to is not taking account the long game and by that I mean years or even decades. Unfornately there are those out there who want to justify their preps, hoping for an EMP to hit (yes, those morons exist) or some similar calamity to befall their area. We need to play for the long game, constantly shoring up our preps / skills / relationships / resources over an extended period of time understanding that yes indeed at some point something could happen. This is why preparedness should be a lifestyle and a balanced one at that. Enjoy life, take the family out, don’t be afraid to travel beyond a 20 mile radius of the homestead. The long play wins in this scenario and it probably always will.
The Bottom Line
All of this circles back to one thing: practical preparedness. Once a baseline is established this is a race that the tortise is poised to win, not the hare. Sound discipline, logic and a good plan of action are key in a successful preparedness journey. Those who jump out of the gate and overload themselves with “I’m a prepper!” are only setting themselves up for disappointment.
3 comments
I have an uncle that lives in Houston. He underwent heart surgery a few weeks ago so I was understandably concerned for him when Harvey came calling. I got in contact with him yesterday and he stated he is doing as well as can be expected right now. I want to use this example to expand on your common sense comment.
He told me he had about a week’s worth of food and bolted water handy, which was the least of his preparing. When he purchased his home, he bought on one of the highest points around, so currently he is not in immediate danger of flooding. He did state that if things got much worse he might have to leave, though. With that in mind, there is a Fire station just a few minutes from his home; he can contact them for a quick evac. if necessary. As he put it, “they can get here quick and haul my crippled a## out of here if I need them to.”
Fortunately, he had not lost utilities as of yesterday and is as well off as can be hoped for. Much of this is due to his foresight, knowledge of most likely scenarios for his area and planning accordingly.
For me, prepping and common sense go hand in hand. I am a firm believer in following the KISS philosophy in this.
Can we be too prepared? Is that even possible? Now I think that it could be! Great insight into the issue.
Balance is pertinent for anything to be successful. We can all get burned out or in debt if we don’t watch it. Plan, prepare and be smart about it. You can have too much of a good thing!
I’ve been a prepper all of my life but it wasn’t until this year that I found out I was one. I always pictured a prepper as a nut who has a snack on the woods,shoots at any who comes near and sits out each day waiting for a disaster.
. Growing up my parents owned a truck farm of 25 acres. We all took a part in growing,selling, and preparing and preserving the harvest. My dad would get up at 4am and take that days harvest to the farmers market in a van with a scale attached. My mom and me and my sister did most of the picking. We shucked mountains of corn, shelled beans, .etc and my mom would can enough to last all year. We almost never bought vegetables. I’m addition my dad.traded vegetables for slabs of pork side meat which he sold and we ate. My mom did the same with a friend who has chickens and pigs. Any spare time I had between helping and school i spent hunting and fishing and trapping and I would see what furs i had to a guy in town. He cheated me a little but it was fun and got me spending money which I never got a lot of growing up.
Today I still do the same. My wife and I can and trade. It’s not a full time business but it’s something I could make one in a pinch.
This year I started reading about preps and preppers and it owned my eyes. Apparently they aren’t all just hermit acting nuts. I’ve began saving food for long term storage and not just year to year. I decided when 1/2 the predicted shelf life hits that food i would use it and replace it with new.
I see two different types of threats. The most common is local threats. I’m my area of the country in far west Tennessee it’s tornados, earthquakes, and ice. Four years ago we had a bad ice storm which. Knocked down most of the older wooden power poles in a 20 mile radius. Our electric was out for two weeks in 15-20 F weather. We couldn’t even get out because every exit was blocked by downed poles and wires. Luckily we have a fireplace and we camp and hike so had that equipment and clothing. But our wood ran out after a week. I have a duck blind heater which helped but we had to leave a window open. I had camping stoves we cooked on. Food wasn’t a problem as I have always been one to keep a pantry stocked.
After that we upgraded our Supplies and the electric company replaced most of the wooden poles.with metal ones. It may never happen again but chances are something will. A fire,tornado,earthquake are all very real possibilities.
The next set of threats are much much rarer but history shows they can and will happen at some point. These are national and global threats. Civil unrest, a political coup, economy collapse, the ever popular EMP and the much more probable nuclear war or asteroid and super volcano such as exists under Yellowstone. Most people aren’t in a position to be fully prepared for an event such as this. But the best tool to fight these types is also the cheapest and that is knowledge and a plan. It seems from reading articles that most stock food like a squirrel on crack but they don’t mention a plan for this or that type of disaster and a national or global disaster is definitely not the time to be forming a plan. And knowledge, of trapping, fishing, hunting, edible wild plants including many growing in your own yard. Knowledge of first aid, escape routes and alternative places to go. Knowledge of what to expect in such a particular event and the best way to combat it. Knowledge is free, knowledge is power get as much as your noggin I’ll hold and keep trying to cram more in.