I am still feeling very, very bad and the doctor said if I don't take it easy I will be in the hospital. So this morning I got up and went to work. The bills will not pay themselves if I am sick or not. So this post might be a little out of the normal.
While laying around yesterday in between my medicated slumbers, I had a chance to think. I thought about where in the sand my line is drawn between prepping for the coming "IT" and planning for the future.
I am sure to most of y'all that sounded like the same thing, but there is a difference.
Prepping for "IT" as you all know is preparing for the unseen problems or the coming SHTF. If you were to spend all your resources planning and preparing for that, then when do you plan for the future? I know what your thinking, "I thought prepping for "IT" is planning for the future". Well, in a way it is, but what I am asking is if "IT" did not happen, what plans would you have?
Let me put it another way, what is plan B? If I have spent all my time, money, energy and life preparing for something that might happen and then it doesn't, then what and where does that leave me? Where do we draw the line on it all? Do I not take the promotion at work because it will leave me less time to prep at home? Do I spend the money for my child's education on emergency food supplies because there will be no reason for an education later? Do I quit my job, cash in my retirement, buy survival gear and hunker down?
Do I tell my wife and kids that from now on there will be no more vacations because we have to buy gold and bury it in the back yard?
It is a known fact that you can never be prepared enough. You can never have enough water stored and if you have a years worth of food then you might as well go for two so you can feed your extended family and friends. What about the Bug Out Spot, now after all home preparations are well on the way, you have to find a bug out spot and bury some survival supplies and a months worth of goods just in case you have to leave your compound you worked so hard to prepare. It is never ending.
I laid there yesterday and thought my God, I could spend hundreds of thousands of dollars and the rest of my life and still not be 100% prepared for "IT" and what would I have to show for it?
There has to be a plan B. We still have to live, have goals and have happiness.
I know some of y'all and you would say the same as me, my happiness is knowing my family is taken care of and will not go hungry, but it all can't be about doomsday.
Maybe I am the only one that struggles with this. Maybe everyone knows how to balance life with preparing for the unseen. Every time I fill the truck up with seventy dollars in gas or make the house payment, all I think about how much food, ammo or lumber that could have bought.
Maybe it's just the medications making me think of stupid things, but there has to be a split of some kind between life and readiness. Like a 50/50, 60/40, 70/30
I'm not looking for answers to this because everyone is different and the bottom line for most of our life's goal is to survive. But I can't consume all my thoughts, energy and money to how many pounds of beans I have.
That is why I started changing what I mostly write about from prepping and surviving back to more of homesteading and self sustainable living like when I started this blog.
This is a complicated issue and many aspects to it. One way I like to handle food prep's is stock up stuff you use normally and rotate old stuff out. I know many do this but I look at is as hedging inflation if nothing else. I am buying food at a lower price today than a year from now so if SHTF never happens I am still ahead.
ReplyDeleteHowever I do think we will have some type of collapse it may be next week or next decade but it has to happen, it cannot be avoided.
I call it prepper's burnout. I'm not on your meds and I have it as well. That's why I've quit posting on my blog for a while.
ReplyDeletePlease take care of yourself because you dont want to end up in the hospital. Knowing your luck you would end up with some terrible infection just from being there...
ReplyDeleteThe way I look at it I'm just doing what my Grandmothers and Grandfathers did back in the depression. You cant ever be prepared enough and even if you think you are someone could come along and take it all or it could be a natural disaster comes along and ruins all your plans. So I'm doing enough to satisfy me and my hubby and learning how to do things the old fashioned way before stores were here and that's all I can do.
I think about this all the time also...I am just glad to know that I am not the only one.
ReplyDeleteGet to feeling better.
Being retired, we live on fixed incomes. Sometimes too fixed! There is no way that we can buy everything that we should have. We buy what we need for everyday, and then get extras for prepping. Do what you can and I am willing to bet you will make it work. I think you are the type that will make it work no matter what. You are a survivor. Prayers are with you. Don't let your health get you down. People depend on you daily.
ReplyDeleteWhere we live, prepping is the first step to self-sufficiency. Once we establish our farm/ranch, my wife will stop working outside the house and start with the animals. We hope that her "new" income will replace her old income.
ReplyDeleteOther than that, life goes on. I won't invest in the stock market, even if Zanadu saves the day by crapping out gold to put the world back in black.
I am so relieved that I'm not the only one who thinks this way MDR. Until I found others (bloggers)who thought this way I figured I needed to see a shrink!
ReplyDeleteFeel better soon, praying for your comfort and healing,
Shar
Take care and get better! In the end self-reliance and homesteading skills are just as important if not more important than stoking up on everything. I have always been taught to trust in God and He will provide. But that does not go without saying there has to be some effort on our part.Preparing for the future is important but so is living in the here and now.
ReplyDeleteI'm right there with ya on your thinkin. I think I'm more on the "not prepping as much as I should" side though. But I figure a little prepping is better than none.
ReplyDeleteHey, you had better take it easy. We want ya up and running and in good health.
Do what you can and don't sweat the small stuff. Even if it's nothing more than a canned ham once a month, it's better than nothing. Besides, with your mini-farm you're way ahead of many.
ReplyDeleteHa! Guess rednecks aren't as tough as legend has it. LOL!
ReplyDeleteGuess my philosophy on the above subject is this. Instead of preparing for what might happen, prepare for what is happening now. Take yourself out of the other guys loop. Buy that I mean everything from big business utilities to the corner grocery store. Why should you be working for the man and turning over what you make to the other man? Invest in making yourself self sufficient now with your own power, food, etc. Buying the stuff from someone else just means when push comes to shove you will need to buy it from them when you run out. And that means you would have to assume that you are working a job that pays you something. I suppose you could assume that things will be back to "normal" at some point but what if they aren't. So while you are recuperating go read the archive at www.cammather.com There is some fluff that wont interest you but there is a lot that will. Start with this one. May 2010 titled "A" plan first plan B second. Let me know what you think.
Get well quickly.
Sorry for the late replies on this post. Thank all y'all for the comments.
ReplyDeleteDuke - I agree with the thought of being ahead of the game. My "IT" is not just the SHTF. Mine is loss of job and things like that. I am glad I got it but on the other hand I want to it to be more than just prepping.
Matt - I think it's kinda like the tide of the ocean.
Denise - Thank you for your concern and you are right about the luck thing.
That's what I'm talking about here. Homesteading and learning how, instead of just prepping and waiting for the big bang.
AAX5 - You have a leg up on the homesteading side of life. With that type of mindset, you will be able to deal with whatever comes. That is what I thought about. If we spend all our time prepping instead of learning and doing then it is all for not.
John - Thank you for those kind words. I understand about the fixed income. I don't think even if I made twice as much as I do now that I would be any closer than where I am now. Self sustainable living is the way.
Mudbug - What you are doing is really not prepping. No matter how hard you might want to be a prepper, your not. You are just like me, stuck in a label somewhere between prepper, survivalist, homesteader and being self sustainable. There is not a label for that yet.
Shar - Thank you for commenting and thank you for the thoughts and prayers. I think we all wonder if what we are doing is enough or even the right thing. The best thing I think we all can do to help ourselves is to relearn what our grandparents did, just like Denise was saying. Who cares if we have 100 cans of green beans on the shelf. If we don't know how to plant, grow, harvest and put away the food then all our storage will run out eventually.
coley - I agree and that is what this was all about.
SFG - Anything is better than nothing but in the end, how long is the little prepping that you are doing going to put off the inevitable? Learning to be self sustainable is the key in all this. I know you are well on your way on that one.
Stephen - I do agree with the Mini Farm. That is why it is built. I can worry myself to death on prepping but knowing how to live is what I need to focus on.
sista - Tough as nails right, well even a nail gets rusty and bends after a while.
You hit it right on the head with what your wrote.
I already read his stuff and yes, there is a lot of fluff I don't like, but he does have some good stuff in there as well.
MDR, I try to prep. I have at least 3 months of food for both of us at the house. I have plan Bs for water, power, and refrigeration. Getting self sufficient is my way to prep, because once I get the animals going, the garden going, and we get off-grid, then SHTF can come and go and we really won't change that much. We might get some help when that day comes, but it would be nice to turn our preps unto the way we live.
ReplyDeleteMudbug - Then you are on the right track as far as I'm concerned.
ReplyDelete