Overdue Update

I know this update is well overdue, but I am just now finding the time to share.

Saturday morning found me giddy as a teenage school girl on her first date. I have been waiting and counting the days for the Self Reliance Expo to come to a city near me and it finally did.
I have seen my fair share of gun shows, but I have never seen anything like this and was excited to be in a huge building full of like minded folks all doing the same thing I do.

Whatever label you put on yourselves being a prepper, a survivalist, a radical, a homesteader or whatever you call yourself if anything at all, you are a minority doing what you do. It is hard to find people that think the same much less do the same thing and this was an opportunity to be surrounded by just those kind of people.

This is where the disappointment sets in. In my mind I pictured this to be a gun show on crack with booths and booths of tactical gear, survival surplus and everything you could think of that dealt with homesteading and living off the grid. I am not saying it was bad, what I am saying is that it was not what I had pictured.
Every other booth was selling freeze dried food, no guns and very little to no survival gear with the biggest item sold being the Life Straw and other water filters.
There were a few Homesteading booths selling mostly stuff for canning and one General Store type, but the Expo was mainly set up for the inner city prepper.
The two really cool things they had were the huge bunker set up outside you could tour and Jackie Clay from Backwoods Home Magnetize. She is an inspiration to all the Homesteading community and I got the chance to shake her hand tell her so.

I had fun and enjoyed being out and talking with the people that I talked to. I think I would rather stick to the Gun shows though.
Speaking of, there is one next month right down the road from me I might just have to attend.

I did pick up an old Mosin 91/30 this weekend and ran a box through it on Sunday. That thing kicks like a mule.

Until next time,
MDR              

A Unspoken Bond

"Just pull them up" the wife says.
"I just can't do it" I replied back.

Every year we go through he same cycle of Planting, Harvesting and Putting By. Then we start the whole thing over again.
There is one point in the circle of garden plant life I hate. It's when I have to pull up a food producing plant.

"It's just a PLANT!" the wife would tell me, but in my heart these plants have sustained life for me, given their all so I can live.
Yes, I know this sounds a little stupid and corney, but it is something I struggle with. The plants have to come out for the Fall gardens to be planted. We already have way to much food and the plants still keep giving. I am at the point where we are giving everything harvested away just so I do not have to stand in the Kitchen all day canning more.
The shelves are full with jars and jars of canned or dried foods. The freezer is over flowing with bags of produce. There is no more room. I will not be able to eat it all now.

Most of the plants are at the end of their life cycle anyway. Remember, I planted way early this year by about three months on some things and it paid off. As it is right now I don't know if I need to plant a Fall garden. I don't know where I would put it all.
I will at least do some lettuce. 

The hard part will be separating that special bond between the plant and the garden keeper, but I am sure I will get over it.       

Prepping The Soul

As far as the idea to prepare ourselves for what is to come, most of us are on the same page and are like minded to the fact we do it all to survive.
We spent countless hours stocking food, stacking ammo and learning new skills to insure we are the ones left standing when whatever happens, happens.
We raise animals and gardens for food, prepare our homesteads to be self sustainable and teach our children how to live right and work hard, all for the greater good of the family and the hard times to come.
We have food for when there will not be any, emergency packs to live out of when forced out, lights for when the electricity is no more, water for when it can't be pumped, weapons and ammo to keep us safe, bags of silver and gold for currency when our dollar fails and we even have predetermined locations for refuge if need be. 
 We do all this because we do not want to be caught unprepared for whatever is to come. Even with all the prepping, working and learning to be sure we will survive, we are still not sure on what and when it will happen. We can speculate, debate and discuss about politics, global warming and the collapsing economy all day, but in the end we still do not know for sure.
All we think or know is that something will happen and we have to be prepared for it.

The one thing you can count on is that yes something will happen, you are going to die. I hate to be the one to break it to you but it is the cold hard truth. There is no way around it no matter how much you prepare against it, it will happen.
You spent your whole life prepping for what is to come and how you can survive it, but what have you done to prepare your soul for the inevitable?
What good is a pantry full of food or a bug out location set up to sustain you for two months when you will not be around to use it? What good is that secret stash of silver you have buried out back when you don't make it back home from work one day? What do you think will happen to that beautiful self functioning Homestead you have spent a lifetime building when a drunk driver runs a red light and you are hit and killed this weekend?   

If you spent your whole life working on what might come instead of what you know will come then it is all for not and you just wasted it all. If you are not one hundred percent sure you are prepared for the real "IT" then you might want to take a step back and do just that.

From now on when I am asked what is the first thing one should do to be prepared, I will simply tell them, "First and foremost, take time to prepare your soul and get right with him, the rest really doesn't matter."


FYI:
I did not want to write this post. It was put on my heart for some reason or another so I had to.           

Weekend Warriors

My Boppie

We spent the weekend out on the Lake. The place where we were at had their 4th celebration going on and it was a blast. The fireworks show lasted three hours with the band and other festivities were still going on when I threw in the towel at midnight and headed for the camper.  

Can you believe our ugly little wet dog won Cutest dog in the dog show. I should say, she was all dressed up for it though. Here she is in her bathing suit.  

 The girls found a fishing dock they decided they just had to jump off. They are too tired to clean their rooms but will jump off this thing for hours.


Yup, that's me on the left sitting in the shade with a cold drank and watching the show. That is BEB on the right.

It was about a ten foot jump. The wife wanted to but chickened out on the rail.

Look at that nasty camp food. It was so hard to eat. I might have to keep cooking it over and over until I get it right.
What a shame. 











Why is it that while I was camping I was up at 5:00 AM ready to go have fun without the alarm. This morning when the alarm went off at 5:00 AM, I had to drag my big butt out of bed to go to work.

This week, party at Mom and Dad's on Tuesday.
This weekend, fishing. The next weekend, camping again. For the rest of the summer just repeat what I just wrote.
What a horrible way to spend the summer. I just don't know how I am going to get through it.