I have read many of the stories on survival blog but have yet to read a one from someone on a very tight budget. That leaves those of us with tiny incomes at a disadvantage and feeling vulnerable. For about two years I have had a small voice inside me telling me to fill my storehouses with food for the coming famine. As a Christian and minister I believe that voice is God and He wants His people to be ready. Although Many Christians think we are crazy and don’t believe they should have to worry about storing foods for times of famine because they are sure God will provide for them. One pastor told me that God wasn’t telling her to prepare so someone else must be going to prepare their food for them. I pray she is right but felt God had me pass on the information to her.
My husband and I are both disabled and live on a modest $20,000 a year. Late last year we moved out of our double-wide mobile home and let one of our sons take over the payments and move in. We moved to the other end of the two acre property to care for my husband’s parents who both have COPD. He does all the driving to get them to their many appointments as well as takes care of their home and property. We live in a 16×20 shop building that we are slowly turning into a cottage. We have put in a bathroom with sink and toilet but need a little more room to put in the tub and shower. We are planning a tiny kitchen this spring and a built-in porch for extra storage. We gave away most of everything we had to make this move. Now we understand more of why we felt so strong about getting out from under the payments of the double wide.
When we lived in the mobile home we had nothing left for food or groceries each month. We were lucky to be able to buy our meds. Of course we are still spending a lot each month on things for the cottage and still have to watch our pennies. The crazy thing is that we did have chickens, goats and pigs to breed and sell. Unfortunately my husband got sick with an intestinal parasite that was eating away at his insides. The health department told us that most people don’t realize they have this until it is too late and they die. We traded our animals for an RV that is worth three times more than the animals were. We are planning to add some chickens this spring though. We had more animals than we could afford to feed through the winter before. We know to be careful to not let that happen again.
We started working on the existing root cellar when we had a couple of warm days. It is small and very wet with a sheet metal door that wouldn’t hold up to a big storm if we needed it to. We cleared the cement roof and plan to seal it and the build a shed on top of it for extra storage. We plan to use as much used materials as we can to keep costs down. We have to clean out all the old jars of food with rusty tops and clean, dry and seal the inside to get it ready for new shelving and stored home canned food from the garden as well as from the grocery and club store. Once we finish that, we are planning to find someone to dig out a new storm shelter beside it. We are sure there is a neighbor that will charge a minimal fee to dig it for us. We also have one that plows our garden at no charge.
We plan to have the new shelter dug much deeper and as large as we can get away with in the place it is. After much research into earth bag building and other inexpensive types of building materials, we settled on cinder block walls with double thickness and with plenty of inside walls to help hold up a foot of concrete of roof on top of it. After our research, we found that the price of the cinder blocks was much more affordable than any of the other materials we looked at. We will seal up the concrete walls, floor, and roof to help keep it dry and tight inside. Before we back fill all the dirt on top and around our new constructed cellar, we will place thick plastic around the walls and roof as an extra moisture barrier. We are looking at the possibility of building an underground home here instead of just a shelter from the storms. With the heat waves we had last summer, we feel that it will be much easier to keep cool than the above ground cottage we are in now.
We will make two ways to enter and leave the new cellar, with both of them hidden to keep us safer in times of social upheaval since we live just outside the city limits. Inside the new shelter we will build plenty of bunks for the family that will join us when the time is at hand. None of which is very far away. In each bunk we will place egg crate mattress toppers with bedding sealed in space bags until they are needed. The bathroom will have a shower and at least two porta potties for back-up. We already have one. We hope to actually put in a septic system below the bathroom so we can use RV toilets when we can afford to add them. We plan to make a kitchen area as well as a living area and large pantry. We will also add a battery room for when we can add solar power. In this room we hope to have a place for freezers and a fridge that will run off of a low circuit. Not sure yet if this is possible. [JWR Adds: See the SurvivalBlog archives–search on “phototvoltaic” for details.] We did find some affordable solar power kits on Amazon.com. This was awesome news for us get before we even start the building.
Our large pantry will house plenty of food as well as medicine and wipes for washing up. We will also stock up on plenty of seeds for replanting the garden as soon as it is feasible. Although we would sell this place when his parents are gone and find a retreat that is more secluded, we feel that getting started now is very important. If we sell later, it will be worth more money that will help pay for what is needed for the new location. We never know how much time we will have to rebuild if we sell out. We don’t want to be caught without a place to keep us from harms way if the worst case scenario should actually happen. We plan to do a lot of fishing this year so we can have lots of fish in the freezer. We are working on a couple ways of double sealing frozen products to keep them from getting freezer burnt and make them last longer.
We are planning to check out our locale army surplus store and see what is available to add to our preparedness. We have no guns or ammo as yet, and don’t know when or how we can add the grinders, expensive water filters or the solar power we will need. We do have a large construction grade gas generator that has come in handy when the power was down for an ice storm in 2009. We were prepared to use it again this year but so far haven’t needed it. We do have our eyes on a propane generator but the price is so far out of our reach. We at least can put in the wiring for solar electricity while we are building. I would love to have the plans to build the stationary bike charger though. If anyone wants to send them along to the blog for all who want to use it. We like having something to look at as we read plans for putting something together though. If there are any resources out there, please let us know.
We have already started on the food storage and will need to find a cool dry place for the five gallon buckets to be stored soon. We are also considering a couple other places on the property to place small cement block dry storage areas for extra food storage. We want to add some how-to books to our library on home canning, animal husbandry, storing food and water safely, and anything else we feel will be useful in any situation when we need to supply our own food completely, in the event that we can’t buy it. We are interested in special growing lights and are thinking about putting in an extra room for this.
In a pinch, we can sell the motor home and some gold jewelry for the more expensive things we need. We are hoping to have some extra veggies to sell this year as well for a little extra cash. We are also looking into buying some produce and reselling at a fair market value for extra cash and to help others who can’t afford grocery store prices with inflation. Thanks to the person who wrote about buying from produce sources and reselling, we feel this will be a big help to us and any customers we can bring in.
In preparation for the coming hard times, we are also losing weight and doing what we can to eat healthier so we can be more physically fit. We have made some very important lifestyle changes in the last few months and have endured some jabs from family members about living in a shed and such. If they only knew what was coming! After talking with our sons here and there, we have actually seen that they are more receptive because of the changes in the weather affecting our food supply. My mother has been ready for this for some time. People who watch the news and see what is actually going on the world can see that change is coming. Even if all that is ever affected is the weather going crazy and affecting our food supply, then at least we will be ready for that. However, this is not all that I expect to see happen in our very near future.
Another thing I find that is relevant to this blog and feel that your subscribers would want to know, is that many of the Christians we know have had visions and dreams of the coming famine and destruction of our country. I have not met one that can put a time on this happening, but believe we can look at God’s word as guidance to help us get prepared for what is coming, no matter when it arrives. My own visions have been of devastating destruction throughout the United States. Famine and sickness abound in those that survive. Many Christians don’t understand the need for being prepared since they plan to be “raptured” or taken care of by God Himself. If you are a Christian and are reading this, I pray you will see this as a warning from God to be prepared before it is too late and food is too high to afford, or it is completely removed from our grasp. It is important to trust that God will help you in your time of need, but you also need to be listening when He is speaking to you–even if He is speaking through someone else. Pray about what your hearing or seeing instead of letting religion keep you from being prepared for the famine that is coming our way very soon. We can all see clearly the signs of the times and know in our hearts that something big is coming our way. Be ready.
Survival is bred into many of us, but at the same time, others have to learn it. My husband and I grew up working in the family gardens and raising chickens and other stock. We have a leg up compared to some. Of course we are looking forward to learning to can food from the garden this year as well as learn to safely dry foods and pack them in a way they will stay fresh for at least a year’s time. We also are planning to work on water tanks that will be just under the surface to collect rainwater which will have pipes that run down to the bathroom and kitchen as needed. We will also look into different methods of filtering the water to make it drinkable and usable for cooking.
As yet we haven’t planned to put any gas tanks underground but are trying to at least keep our tank filled in case there is a shortage sooner that we expect. We get great gas mileage in our older car and will pay it off this year and that will give us a couple hundred dollars extra each month to work with. We will be ready for TEOTWAWKI no matter when it comes. I pray others begin to open their eyes to what is happening around the world and how it will affect us. In doing so, they will then see the need to have extra food on hand for those times when the store shelves are empty and no food can be bought. I pray they also see the same need for water storage as well as medicines and other necessities.