The Good Old Days Are Still Great

Anyone who knows me knows I am not a salesman.  That being said I’d like to encourage you to at least consider what I have to say about being prepared for whatever comes our way.  Consider how it may apply to your own situation and make your own plan if you choose to do so.  I was never in a position to be a boy scout but that doesn’t mean I don’t hold their motto close at heart.  I work at utilizing lifestyle skills I learned long ago to enhance our self-sufficiency and improve the quality of our day to day lives. Please bear with the history lesson.

It occurred to me as I sat here at work on a long quiet midnight shift that all the things I learned as I was growing up would be of vital use to me when the collapse comes.

I grew up in central New York State about 20 miles south of Utica, New York.  We lived in the flat farm land valley along NYS Route 8 about 1.5 miles north of Bridgewater.  As a young child I was exposed to all kinds of useful things, although I had no idea of it at the time.   Being a typical child who wanted to go out and play with friends instead of doing my chores.  Chores that I learned would someday be of great benefit to me and my family.

I was taught the finer points of planting and weeding a garden and what was ok to yank out of the ground and what was not.   We planted pole beans, cucumbers, squash, tomatoes, sweet corn and other assorted garden goodies that were either frozen or canned after they were harvested.  I even worked for some of the ladies at church weeding their large gardens as a result of my training and earning a few dollars on the side.

I learned all about water bath canning from my mother, which she did regularly during harvest season.  We would go to the local fruit stand/farmer’s market and get bushels of vegetables that we didn’t have in our garden and prepare them for the canning process.  Blanching the vegetables and placing them in the mason jars. The basement shelves were lined with the culmination of our efforts.   I didn’t know it then but I would be buying supplies to do this myself later on in life.

I learned most of my cooking skills from my mother as well.  She was an awesome cook and I don’t ever recall having a bad meal when she cooked.  In fact when we went to visit her sister and family 3 towns away from our house, she would cook because my aunt could not do it very well.  Whether it was pie crust or lasagna, my mom was the best at whatever she made for us.

My dad liked to go for rides after dinner and most of the time we went on back roads and dirt trails in nearby state land.  We would forage for black berries, raspberries and black raspberries and the occasional strawberry, which were taken home and either canned or frozen.  We came upon a fawn sleeping in the undergrowth one time and the little guy got caught in a fence when he tried to run off and my dad rescued the fawn from the fence and it bounded off into the woods.

My dad was a self-employed carpenter, plumber and electrician and I learned a lot of things from him that would be beneficial later in life when I came to own my own home.  Do it yourself projects were always going on out in the workshop.  Dad had a supply of redwood 2 x 6’s and he made picnic tables out of them.  He sold several to family friends and family and one for us where we spent many an evening eating at during the summers.  We rented and our house was bought up and the new owners went to remodeling the house it was a two- story, two apartment home.  We helped with all the remodeling from plumbing to vinyl siding on the outside, to masonry work to replace the cobblestone foundation.  I also helped the church I was a member of build a parsonage for the pastor and his wife and got to use those masonry skills again.

I got a job as a custodian at the high school I graduated from in the ‘70’s and worked that for a couple of years and then I joined the US Air Force and spent 20 years moving from place to place.  Not owning my own place and having to live on base where ever I was stationed didn’t provide the opportunity to continue those things learned in my childhood.  So when I retired and was able to plant my feet in on place for longer than a year or two I began to re-familiar myself with the things I learned as a youth all those long years before.

We own our own home, it’s a modest 1800 sq. foot single floor dwelling, 4 bedrooms and 2 baths. We homesteaded it to get a break on the local taxes.  The children have all graduated and moved out, so it’s just me and the wife and of course our 4 legged children, of which we have four.  I now have the time to put lessons learned in my youth to practice–whether it be plumbing, which I detest, (although I had to replace the 40 gallon hot water heater twice in 10 years and have become a pro at it), to gardening, and we’ve started dehydrating foods for long term storage and water bath canning.

We have been accumulating things we need for preps, water storage, food stores and medical items.  We also have the weapons area covered.  I don’t think I’ll ever get to the point I am comfortable with our on hand stocks, but we are working it on a budget.  I have my military retirement check and my monthly check from my current state job and they get stretched as far as they can go for daily needs and preps for long term storage.

We are in the process of obtaining items to get off the grid. I have a well that came with the place that just needs a pump.  The water table isn’t too shallow so a root cellar is in the works.  Since we live in the city limits we cannot have livestock per se, but rabbits could be considered pets if it came down to it.

Security has become an issue, the existing brick wall around the property is leaning into the alley and needs to be replaced, a 8 foot tall metal fence will replace it.  I’ve had to secure the gate to the backyard since I came home and found them open.  My male dog came out to greet me at the car one day and that was the end of not locking the gates.

A small greenhouse and raised beds for growing the garden since the soil is very alkali here and I’ve spent a good portion of our 10 years here trying to get the pH level to one suitable for growing vegetables and have had no success at it.  I like doing the gardening, for me it’s a stress reliever.  I work for the highway patrol in communications (dispatcher in the old days), and the job is very stressful.  Gardening is my escape from all the tension the job has.  I like being able to get things to grow, that, and I’m big into salads.

The next thing on my long list of things to do is remodel the house, the doors all need to be replaced and made more secure.  We’ve had a security company put in an alarm system with broken glass alerting.  The windows need to be upgraded along with other things.  Not to bore you with all the details, just to say that I’m glad for my upbringing and that I actually paid attention to all I was being exposed to as a child.  It gives me reassurance that I can do the things needed to take care of the homestead and upgrade the areas that are in need of it.

I’ve considered starting my own computer business. I am self-taught at everything I know about these things and having worked as a technician and a network administrator at several jobs I’ve had in the past.  I can build, troubleshoot and repair them.  This would provide for more expendable income to advance my preparations and renovations.  I wish my folks were still alive so I could properly thank them for all they did for me while I was growing up, hoping that they would be proud of what I have become.  Dad passed away while I was still in school and mom passed away about 15 years later.

All of this is part of our ”Retirement Insurance” program.  As I sit back and watch the daily happenings on the news I am forced to consider what we will need to survive if it all goes to Hades on an express elevator.  This is what I prepare for and put all the life skills learned to good use.  Mind you this doesn’t begin to tap the skills and resources that my wife brings to the table.  So I think that we are well on our way to some semblance of self-sufficiency and be a head of the game when the time comes.

I want to thank you for enduring my reminiscing into things of the past that I felt would beneficial to your readers.   Things we learn from the time we are able to talk and walk are especially important to how we are at this stage of life.   Putting into practice all the skill sets we’ve learned over the years and then accessing the current situation and making them better and more suitable to have a sustainable lifestyle should things hit the fan.  In closing, I hope this will be of use to some out there in survival land.  Whether it be the collapse of society from an economic standpoint, pandemic or a NEO gets too close and disrupts our way of life or anything for that matter.  I feel that the skills learned throughout my life will be most beneficial to my family and friends and my church.

R.D. TX