Left-Leaning Feminist, Democrat, Liberal Prepper

Okay so I admit it.  I’m a left leaning, Feminist, Democrat,science believing Liberal Prepper.  Ah,  I feel so out of the closet here. How could such a thing happen? Come TSHTF and TEOTWAWKI when the Zombies go after the Mormons, NRA’s and Preppers to steal all the goodies. Hopefully my family and I will still be hanging around. Eating, reading, growing things and living to tell the tales to the next generation.

How did this happen? Well I guess it just evolved ( Darwins theory of prepper development, or survival of the Fittest).  But it really comes of family stories, big brothers and envy of reading my brothers “Boys Life”, as a young girl and wishing there was a “Girls Life”.  Also the things that have happened to my family.

I’m the youngest of nine. We were poor, didn’t have any fancy things, but we did spend summers in Minnesota at my Grandparents farm. The women and grandpa kept a wonderful garden every year, I still remember grandpa’s tomatoes! The women would have canning parties in the summer, and shared work was fun. And every Christmas we looked forward to the gift box from Minnesota with homemade dried beef ( think beef prosciutto) and Grandmas Divinity candy.

My mom would make strawberry jam every year as the first strawberries were out in the old Orange County farms in California where we lived. And we would have at least one cherry tomatoe plant and parsley growing year round in our yard. My mom knew all the secrets of getting stains out of laundry long before “shout” or any stain remover was thought of, salt and lemons and sunshine were her cleaning products.

My sister still cans loads of Apricot jam from one tree that we all fight for every Christmas. My brothers know how to can and smoke meat. And fish.

I’ve been accused of being a “Hippie”, but protest because really I’m More Crunchy Granola type. (Hippie has more to do with wacky tobacco, than Granola. Being green and Natural.). I started canning years ago in the Amazon basin in Brazil, making Mango chutney. I moved there with my then Ecologist scientist husband. Living there was a life changing experience. We didn’t have a lot of choice of things to buy to eat there, everything came 1500 miles up the Amazon on a boat or was flown in by plane. I learned a lot of making do, doing without, or what the locals did. It was a experience that I wouldn’t change for anything, but know if we had the Internet then I would have learned to make cheese from Kelleens (sic)  instruction, or wax cheese to save for later. Or a better way to purify water.

Fast forward after the Amazon we lived in Colorado and learned to garden in great soil,then we moved to the desert where my husband learned the “Three Sisters” method to grow corn. And we raised chicken and my kids learned to watch for Rattle snakes while they played.

I have always enjoyed cooking, sewing, knitting, repurposing things and being less of a user of resources than necessary. But now I too am concerned about what could happen if things get worse. I grew up hearing the family stories about surviving blizzards in Minnesota, living through the 1918 Spanish flu, the dust bowl in Minnesota, the war years in California and rationing, and the lean years after when my mom survived on a 100 lb. Bag of potatoes left on her doorstep for 3 families to share. We have survived  thinking eleven members had been killed in the Big Thompson Flood n 1976, fortunately they weren’t there, but we didn’t know for days and had no Disaster Plan.

I’m a nurse in a hospital, and I know that will not be the place to go in a huge epidemic or Disaster.  I have lived thru major earthquakes and my parents were in the 1933 Long Beach earthquake. I have lived in a country with Military dictatorship. And I was a single parent living paycheck to paycheck for years.

So in the last year I started pulling things together to prep. I read the blogs, don’t sways agree with the politics, dislike the gun porn, but would like to learn more about having guns and how to protect myself and my family. I look about when I drive for safety, routes to get out of dodge, and keep a BOB in my car. I am learning Master Gardening thru a local course.when I go for walks I look for free sources of food in the neighborhood, like apple trees or cattails.  And I have been learning more canning and food preservation. I use coupons and have increased my food storage. I am learning how to Solar cook, but in Oregon Washington it’s not to practical most of the year.

I am very selective about who I talk to and what I tell them about prepping, but am learning to read the signs of Preppers. I am trying to get my family on board, we are multi-talented and could do well if needed. Everyone has multiple talents that could be used, and all are well read. And yes we do have Republicans in the family, so things can get Hot when talking politics, but we do love each other.

I think if a person is going to Prep, we need to talk across our differences and find our common grounds and beliefs. We will need each other more than ever, and we all do love this wonderful country and want it to survive, even with our differences.

Besides I have coffee and chocolate hidden away!

Good luck everyone.

K.M. WA

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