Been busy...

Well, the bees are busy at work, the garden is popping, and I keep craming every square inch full of things. I still have some room in the bean patch. Not for too much longer though. Should be through planting by end of this week. Hope you all are too. Here in the NC we are blessed with the long growing season. And can get two to three crops in one spring, summer, fall garden. Plenty of squash, cukes, beans, taters, maters, and fresh greens for salads. Might be a good time of you haven't already, to track down the old timers in oyur midst, and find out how they did what they did in the good ole days. Need old recipes, old methods of storing and preserving foods. I am going to try my hand at a few new things this year myself.

This summer is when things are going to get pressing, according to a few wise folks. Men that see the world for what it is, not what the made-up pretty boys and talking dolls say it is, with a smile added for effect of course. Some say as early as mid-July. I say, whatever you need to od, why not do it by July. That way, you are ahead of the brain craving zombie hoards. A water purifier is a must, a back up is required (2 is one, and one is none, remember that) P.A.C.E. yourself. P is for Primary, A is for Alternative, C is for Contingency, and E is for Emergency. If your plan is running to wally world for a couple for gallons of water for your backup, your plan is to die. If you don't have the plan now, you need to make it priority number 1! Not waiting another day, take a moment and think things through. Think about commonality of disaster. What you can do to cover your bases. Food, water, meds, flashlights, batteries, etc. All are necessary for what you could encounter. But, better prep for whats coming. The word is out, summer is going to be remembered as the summer of rage. I think that might be the understatement of the year. Hungry people might be a little pissed off. Just a little.

Are you ready for the revolution? You better be. If you plan to just hunker down and keep your nose clean, you still can be brought into it, just by being in the wrong place at the wrong time. The Patriot, with Mel Gibson, while a movie is an example of how this could happen to a person trying to stay out. But I would advise picking a team. I know my side, and I ain't budging from it. Not one damn bit. I am not wanting a fight, but I ain't sitting in a corner whining either. North Carolinians have always been strong warriors, and could be depended on in battle to fight harder than most. I take pride in that. I pray we haven't all been neutered, but I have to admit, I have my doubts. That doesn't mean pick a fight, just stand ready. Forewarned is forearmed.

What to begin with...

Here we sit, at the beginning of the end, as our President said. Many have wondered what that meant. As a prepper, I ignore what is thrown out there as a sound bite for the masses, and watch the real indicators, such as unemployment, loss of consumer confidence, neighborhood foreclosures up and up and up, homeless rates increasing, violent crimes up, a creaping malaise on our country. I decide to do something. I cannot control our country's slide into economic oblivion, I can however insulate myself to a degree with preps. Thats right! The glorious wonderful simple thing called preps. I can go and do SOMETHING, instead of nothing. Here is what I do.

First, I sit down with a piece of paper (or in your head if you are not as ADD as I am) and analyze the situation. If you are not yet in trouble with job loss or foreclosure, you have the gift of time on your side. You can develop a plan. If you are already suffering, you can still plan and allocate your limited resources accordingly. The key is plan. If you fail to plan, you plan to fail. So, you sit down. First thing you need is water. Do you have backup water sources and filters. I will do a post, with pics, on how to build a DIY water filter. I wouldn't focus too much on water though. Just enough to cover a week or so. Not only for economic tsunamis, but also for natural disasters. Next, Food. You need as much as you can afford to get. I know things are tough, so this is how I do it. First, buy a sunday paper, every sunday, and clip coupons. Visit sites like coupons.com and print coupons. Not only the ones you need, but those you could use, and those you don't. Get a box, a binder, something, and organize those coupons. The ones you don't use, group together, and you can trade those with others for the ones you want. I amd my wife, shop the weekly special flyers and use coupons for whats on sale. Several stores locally double coupons everyday. So an item on sale for $1.50, with a $0.50 coupon, doubled cost me only 50 cents. Often coupons are tripled when they have a sale, maybe every other month. We regularly cut our grocery bill in half, or better. This way, not only do we save money, we also get more preps. And that is a very good thing.

Next time we will discuss storing food and how to get more cheaply. I am new to this blogging thing, so I hope this is not too tedious.I will be attempting new projects this season. Rabbits, bees, and an expanded garden. I will post as much of this as I can along with pics so you can learn from my mistakes.

Pray for the best, and prep for the worst, and somewhere the two will meet.

Ren