Suddenly Prepping

As a child growing up in the 50s and 60s, my sweetest moments were at my uncle’s dairy farm in middle Georgia. The place was very large with multiple barns and a huge farmhouse with a wrap around porch. That porch hosted story telling, family lore, watermelon slicing, ice cream churning and star gazing with my grandparents, aunts, uncles, parents and numerous cousins. In addition to these leisurely pursuits, there was a lifestyle of self reliance. A large family garden supplied all the produce, the cows provided all the dairy, the chickens provided eggs and so on. It was not unusual. In that location and at that time, it was how most people provided food for their family. It appealed to me then and appeals to me know. Fast forward to 2012….

After being married to an engineer for 40 years, my dream of living that type of self reliant, rural lifestyle seemed pretty remote. I had approached my husband multiple times about buying some remote property to prepare for retirement. Each time he shrugged and gave a non-committal response. I backed off. Then one day at my congregation, I met a woman who was convinced that devastation in the form of a tsumani was just around the corner (this was shortly before the tsunami in Japan). I began to feel my first pangs of anxiety regarding preparedness. On the way home I prayed to God and told Him that I would approach my husband one last time and that, if he agreed, I would know that He (God) was intervening. And He did.

We now own a nice but average home on a beautiful remote 5 1/2 acre property. It has a well, propane for heating, cooking and hot water. We are building a rather large ‘square foot garden’ for our produce. I bought all heirloom seeds and they are now sprouting on the kitchen table.

Now this was mainly an exercise in recapturing a wonderful bygone tempo and texture to my life. That is done, and its wonderful. But then I happened to read Glenn Beck’s book “Broke”. I found out just how reckless Washington has been with our national finances. For every $1 Washington spends, it borrows 40+ cents. And we’ve been doing this for a long time. In fact, I think we have passed the point of no return.

It’s time to prepare for a world where there is no safety net that we haven’t woven ourselves. Imagine a world without food stamps, welfare, unemployment, Social Security and Medicare. This changes everything.

So I’m stockpiling food with the goal of having enough on hand for our children and their families for one year. I’m using Wendy DeWitt’s system for gauging my level of completion. I’m collecting manual counterparts for my electrical conveniences in the event of a long term power loss. We’re looking at manual water pump choices to supplement our large, above ground reservoir. My husband wants to build his own solar setup. In addition we have procured a solar oven as well as a Cobb oven for cooking during inclement weather. We’re storing extra meds. We have several guns for security and hunting. I plan to have extra convenience food for those who are passing through. And we watch ‘Doomsday Preppers’ for ideas on refining our setup.

I hope I am wrong. I hope that we remember our national roots of self reliance and living within our means. And I hope that people are ready to step in the gap for those among us who truly need a helping hand.

E.S.

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