Post by SA Hunter on Nov 19, 2014 9:29:42 GMT 8
www.apreppinghomestead.com/prepping-prioritization/
I recently wrote a post on diversification in prepping. In that post I detailed that not only do you and your family need to diversify into many different preps, but also the rest of your lives. Your day job, investing, schooling, and maintaining a regular fulfilling life being just as important as concentrating on preps.
The last couple of weeks have been an alarming time for us. Ebola has come home, and I believe could be a real threat. Despite our government and the CDC telling us at every step of the way not to worry about “x”, “x” keeps happening. The growth rate here in the US is just as alarming as it is in Africa. For every one infected person, two new folks get infected. And the two nurses I speak of were medical professionals who supposedly had the gear and training to stay safe. Still think it can’t happen here? I recommend this article on why it might just be time to panic. Well, never panic, but be prepared! One of these nurses recently traveled via air after clearly showing signs of infections, and another health care professional involved in the Texas case is on a Carnival cruise ship!? Do I think the odds of any cases coming from those situation are great? No…. But clearly as airplanes still come from infected nations, VISA applications are still being granted, folks who have been in contact with Ebola are out among the public, it seems likely that if you let enough cracks in the dam, eventually it will break. And truly, Ebola is only one of the many major threats we are facing right now, just look at the stock market the last few days, it all leads to economic collapse….
With this on my mind I’ve been thinking a great deal about prepping prioritization, as well as prioritizing my efforts. I sold a successful business a couple years ago and have been restarting it in a new location. This takes a lot of effort and is a slow process that requires time and money. As well this blog takes time and effort. In the worst case scenario 6 months from now an IT consulting business may have no chance for success, and a blog may seem really trivial. So is it time to concentrate on shoring up our preps, building business relationships that are more agriculture and essential physical labor based? Keeping a whole bunch of plates spinning is always a challenge knowing which to spin up faster, and which to let wobble a bit. Right now the Pit Greenhouse is our highest priority. Not just because the odds of SHTF may be increasing, but also because winter weather could shut down our ability to build any week now.
I can barely help myself prioritize our projects and efforts, so giving advice on the subject may be specious, but if you follow your heart, and make sure you don’t let any one plate completely stop, you’ll be doing your best. And with that you must believe that what you’re doing is right. Doubt will only slow you down.
Now, as for prioritizing your prepping? Here are my thoughts:
1) Water! — If there’s one things we need almost as much as air, it is water. Whether you stock up by buying cases of bottles at Costco, by filling drums, or by ensuring you have access to clean water by installing a hand pump well, the CDC recommends 1 gallon of water per day for each person in your family. For a family of four to have enough on hand for 60 days (is that long enough for you to become self sustainable with your water needs?) that’s 240 gallons! And just how do you become self sustainable. If you live in the country, find a stream that you can filter water from. If you have a well be prepared to convert to a hand pump, or install a solar system to keep the water flowing. If you live in a city have enough water to wait things out, and enough to travel to a bug out location if it’s not coming back on.
2) Food – Staying strong is essential to staying safe, and keeping the family fed is very important. Certainly having some MRE’s or Mountain House type meals on hand is a great way to get through the initial days when the grocery store dries up. After that our preps article goes into much more detail on the storage bins with gamma lids, oxygen absorbers, etc. Storing beans, grains, canned meats and vegetables, oils, cheese, butter, etc. is a much more cost efficient way to put many meals into storage for a rainy day. An advantage to this type of food is also that you can rotate it into your normal food consumption while shopping at the store is still a reality so the investment will not go to waste. Here you’re looking at just how many calories does your family need until you can become self sufficient at producing your own food. 2000 calories per person per day to stay strong? Your needs will vary, but when you do the math you may need a lot more than you thought. One thing to consider is that you have to cook this food possibly without gas or power. Read our article on our Rocket Stove, and consider getting a EcoZoom Plancha.
3) Pandemic Preps – Certainly right now Ebola is the number one topic on the prepper’s mind. Do you have what you need to shelter in place and self quarantine? You want at least N95 respirators to use in a pinch and short term, but P100 respirators with replacement filters are a better long term option. If one of your loved ones gets infected there’s not much you can do for them other than keep them in fluids and food. Think energy drinks, apple sauce, crackers, basically whatever you’d treat the flu with. You need to ensure you don’t get infected though. Some plastic sheeting, and a few rolls of tape, will create a clean room. Ensure that if you’re doing this in a house that there’s no central air system circulating air from the room. Add in some protective suits and gloves for when you care for the person.
4) Safety — This is a really important prep. Clearly we all know that food, water, shelter, etc. are essential to survival. If SHTF and you’re one of the prepared that has resources you will have to protect them from your fellow man. If you own firearms and know how to use them, stock up on Ammo. Make sure your house can be barricaded and protected. Make a plan to be inconspicuous, and be careful who you share information of your preps with. Bugging out to a safer location if you live among the masses may be essential to your survival.
5) Currency and Trading — Will you have what it takes to barter, trade, and buy items from fellow prepped families? Whatever the disaster, credit cards will fail, the US dollar may be worthless, have extra food, water, and defenses on hand to trade for what you might be lacking. Consider Gold and Silver as a way to keep currency that historically has always held value.
6) Shelter – Already discussed, but make sure it’s safe, that you have your preps with you, is defensible, has water, some power, and can provide for long term self sufficiency.
7) Self Sufficiency — The wholly grail. A disaster may only last for weeks or months before society gets back on track, but if it is years you’ll need to produce for yourself. Whether it’s year round gardening with a pit garden, lots of canning, hunting, fishing, whatever your skills may be, eventually you’ll have to stop living off your preps, and start making your own. Making the plan now, ensuring you have whatever you’ll need on hand, such as seeds, to make it happen, will ensure your long term success. The more you start living the self sufficient lifestyle today, the easier it will be when it’s a necessity.
8) Everything else — Games, books, fuel, toilet paper, batteries, the list of items that may not be essential to survival, but are essential to making life worth living is endless. The more you find happiness today in a simpler life the easier a transition will be. There’s no harm though in being honest with yourself about what you will need to maintain sanity and ensuring you’ve prepped those items.
Best of luck finding your prepping prioritization.
I recently wrote a post on diversification in prepping. In that post I detailed that not only do you and your family need to diversify into many different preps, but also the rest of your lives. Your day job, investing, schooling, and maintaining a regular fulfilling life being just as important as concentrating on preps.
The last couple of weeks have been an alarming time for us. Ebola has come home, and I believe could be a real threat. Despite our government and the CDC telling us at every step of the way not to worry about “x”, “x” keeps happening. The growth rate here in the US is just as alarming as it is in Africa. For every one infected person, two new folks get infected. And the two nurses I speak of were medical professionals who supposedly had the gear and training to stay safe. Still think it can’t happen here? I recommend this article on why it might just be time to panic. Well, never panic, but be prepared! One of these nurses recently traveled via air after clearly showing signs of infections, and another health care professional involved in the Texas case is on a Carnival cruise ship!? Do I think the odds of any cases coming from those situation are great? No…. But clearly as airplanes still come from infected nations, VISA applications are still being granted, folks who have been in contact with Ebola are out among the public, it seems likely that if you let enough cracks in the dam, eventually it will break. And truly, Ebola is only one of the many major threats we are facing right now, just look at the stock market the last few days, it all leads to economic collapse….
With this on my mind I’ve been thinking a great deal about prepping prioritization, as well as prioritizing my efforts. I sold a successful business a couple years ago and have been restarting it in a new location. This takes a lot of effort and is a slow process that requires time and money. As well this blog takes time and effort. In the worst case scenario 6 months from now an IT consulting business may have no chance for success, and a blog may seem really trivial. So is it time to concentrate on shoring up our preps, building business relationships that are more agriculture and essential physical labor based? Keeping a whole bunch of plates spinning is always a challenge knowing which to spin up faster, and which to let wobble a bit. Right now the Pit Greenhouse is our highest priority. Not just because the odds of SHTF may be increasing, but also because winter weather could shut down our ability to build any week now.
I can barely help myself prioritize our projects and efforts, so giving advice on the subject may be specious, but if you follow your heart, and make sure you don’t let any one plate completely stop, you’ll be doing your best. And with that you must believe that what you’re doing is right. Doubt will only slow you down.
Now, as for prioritizing your prepping? Here are my thoughts:
1) Water! — If there’s one things we need almost as much as air, it is water. Whether you stock up by buying cases of bottles at Costco, by filling drums, or by ensuring you have access to clean water by installing a hand pump well, the CDC recommends 1 gallon of water per day for each person in your family. For a family of four to have enough on hand for 60 days (is that long enough for you to become self sustainable with your water needs?) that’s 240 gallons! And just how do you become self sustainable. If you live in the country, find a stream that you can filter water from. If you have a well be prepared to convert to a hand pump, or install a solar system to keep the water flowing. If you live in a city have enough water to wait things out, and enough to travel to a bug out location if it’s not coming back on.
2) Food – Staying strong is essential to staying safe, and keeping the family fed is very important. Certainly having some MRE’s or Mountain House type meals on hand is a great way to get through the initial days when the grocery store dries up. After that our preps article goes into much more detail on the storage bins with gamma lids, oxygen absorbers, etc. Storing beans, grains, canned meats and vegetables, oils, cheese, butter, etc. is a much more cost efficient way to put many meals into storage for a rainy day. An advantage to this type of food is also that you can rotate it into your normal food consumption while shopping at the store is still a reality so the investment will not go to waste. Here you’re looking at just how many calories does your family need until you can become self sufficient at producing your own food. 2000 calories per person per day to stay strong? Your needs will vary, but when you do the math you may need a lot more than you thought. One thing to consider is that you have to cook this food possibly without gas or power. Read our article on our Rocket Stove, and consider getting a EcoZoom Plancha.
3) Pandemic Preps – Certainly right now Ebola is the number one topic on the prepper’s mind. Do you have what you need to shelter in place and self quarantine? You want at least N95 respirators to use in a pinch and short term, but P100 respirators with replacement filters are a better long term option. If one of your loved ones gets infected there’s not much you can do for them other than keep them in fluids and food. Think energy drinks, apple sauce, crackers, basically whatever you’d treat the flu with. You need to ensure you don’t get infected though. Some plastic sheeting, and a few rolls of tape, will create a clean room. Ensure that if you’re doing this in a house that there’s no central air system circulating air from the room. Add in some protective suits and gloves for when you care for the person.
4) Safety — This is a really important prep. Clearly we all know that food, water, shelter, etc. are essential to survival. If SHTF and you’re one of the prepared that has resources you will have to protect them from your fellow man. If you own firearms and know how to use them, stock up on Ammo. Make sure your house can be barricaded and protected. Make a plan to be inconspicuous, and be careful who you share information of your preps with. Bugging out to a safer location if you live among the masses may be essential to your survival.
5) Currency and Trading — Will you have what it takes to barter, trade, and buy items from fellow prepped families? Whatever the disaster, credit cards will fail, the US dollar may be worthless, have extra food, water, and defenses on hand to trade for what you might be lacking. Consider Gold and Silver as a way to keep currency that historically has always held value.
6) Shelter – Already discussed, but make sure it’s safe, that you have your preps with you, is defensible, has water, some power, and can provide for long term self sufficiency.
7) Self Sufficiency — The wholly grail. A disaster may only last for weeks or months before society gets back on track, but if it is years you’ll need to produce for yourself. Whether it’s year round gardening with a pit garden, lots of canning, hunting, fishing, whatever your skills may be, eventually you’ll have to stop living off your preps, and start making your own. Making the plan now, ensuring you have whatever you’ll need on hand, such as seeds, to make it happen, will ensure your long term success. The more you start living the self sufficient lifestyle today, the easier it will be when it’s a necessity.
8) Everything else — Games, books, fuel, toilet paper, batteries, the list of items that may not be essential to survival, but are essential to making life worth living is endless. The more you find happiness today in a simpler life the easier a transition will be. There’s no harm though in being honest with yourself about what you will need to maintain sanity and ensuring you’ve prepped those items.
Best of luck finding your prepping prioritization.
