I have been guilty for years of talking about preparing verses actually putting forth the effort and taking the necessary steps to prepare for my family. I began my prep life back pre-2000 Y-2K bug times. I began to read about the potential time bomb that was ticking as it pertained to the technology crash back in 1995. I had subscribed to a homesteaders magazine called Countryside (highly recommended) and began to study what impending danger that our nation and world was faced with. As did many, I did not want to face the facts that this could actually happen to the good ole USA and like many laughed it off. As the end of 1998 came closer we lived on a historical farm in central Ohio and I began to take serious the issue at hand. I became very convicted that if there was even a small chance that this “bug” could paralyze our society and send us back to the stone age then I at least needed to protect my wife and children. We all chipped in and began to prepare. To say I went over-board would be very mild. We put in a 100’ x 100’ garden (our first) and proceeded to plant everything that came in a seed packet. I went to the garden center and looked down at the very small tomato plants and thought to myself “how much can one small plant produce”? So I proceed to buy 52 tomato plants! Guess what we did all summer long! After fighting massive amounts of weeds and a wife that resembled Lisa on the old television show “Green Acres”; we had put away over 500 quarts of tomatoes, carrots, beans, okra, cherries, apples, pears, salsa, pickles, soups, sauerkraut, jellies, jams and other various garden goodies. Farmer wife even entered canned goods into local county fair and won a few ribbons. Not to bad for a couple of rookies.
Now that we had our food supply secured we concentrated on water storage and after a 3 day winter ice storm, installed a direct electric hook-up from our well to a portable generator. Now we felt like we could supply the much needed water to our family and the 30 feeder calves that I had purchased to supply our family and friends with beef. Again going “overboard” and never having raised cattle before did I ever realize how much free fertilizer 30 head of baby calves can produce when they get to be 800 pounds! Securing a independent water supply is critical when you have livestock, especially 30 head! We made every mistake imaginable but along the way we were learning very valuable survival skills. Learning how to care for cattle, horses, and chickens is something that will definitely come in handy again. As our pantry, water and meat supplies had become secured we turned to our home. Our 200 year old farm house had three non-working fireplaces so my next goal was to provide heat in case the “lights went out” during the winter or for an other reason. Yes, we had the small portable generator but we needed more to heat our old home. We then worked on the fireplaces to secure our heating source by installing a wood pellet stove. We then bought pallet full’s of pellets for a years supply.
After securing food, water and shelter we turned our attention to our finances. I might mention that during this time of preparation I reduced my income by 50% and started a new career in finance. Bad timing just two years prior to 9-11! As I continued to read about the impending danger of Y2K, I began to visit pawn shops and flea markets buying “junk” silver dollars. At the time I paid $7 for each Morgan Silver Dollar (not too bad return on investment–as they now sell for $30+) and began to accumulate quite a bit of silver and some gold as well. During a very tough financial time in our lives we were sacrificing a lot to prepare for something we had no idea if it was going to happen or not. Yet there was something inside that said there is enough warning signals to prepare and to protect your family.
FAST FORWARD: January 1, 2000 came and as we went to bed fully stocked and prepared to meet the new world, everyone woke to a new year and almost with an arrogant sigh the media and naysayers began to ridicule anyone that had prepared sighting their extreme behavior as crazy and naive. Remember this is the USA nothing can touch us! I must admit that there was something also inside me that almost wished that the Y2K bug would have brought this country to its knees and humbled us a little. Just think if we had went through that pain, how much better we would be today. Just think if Facebook would have not come about how better our society would be. Technology can be good such as this web-site and others for educational purposes but too much of a good thing is dumbing down our country. I could write an entire article on my thoughts concerning technology and how vulnerable this country is to a cyber attack. Take away cell phones and the Internet and our economy will certainly collapse.
Okay, everyone knows where this is going. As many, we fell back into our comfortable lives laughing at all the fuss and chasing the all mighty dollar. We moved from our historical farm, sold all the animals and off to the city we went where we proceeded to fall back into the “world” and all its enticements. I started my new business in a new community and weathered the economic storm of 9-11. We built our business and became “successful” in the eyes of many. We bought a big home, spent mucho dollars adding and renovating, and even bought a yacht. Yes, life was good and remember this is the good ole USA, nothing can keep us down. We continued to buy into the hype and then 2008 came and nearly put us out of business. We borrowed more to get us through (sound like any country you know) and made it out the other end.
Then I got my copy of Patriots. I began to read about a scenario that haunted me in my dreams. I read more and more about how many were prepping for something that reminded me of what I did back in the late 1990s but much, much worse. The funny thing was that even when we “back slid” into the world did I ever stop my subscription to my homesteading magazine and always felt like we had made a mistake in our abandonment of the simple life on the farm.
WAKE UP CALL! Well it seems like light years ago that I was worried and preparing for something a small as the Y2K Bug! Our country has seen more negative change and has more challenges than all the previous 75 years. We stand at the brink of financial bankruptcy and our government continues to deny the critical nature of our country’s financial house. We owe hundreds of trillions of dollars of debt, we have unemployment over 12% (don’t believe the media), a housing market that has collapsed, we are nationalizing health care, bailouts a plenty for those corporations that have the right politician in their pocket, sky high oil prices, food costs and quality out of control, job sectors that will never return to this country, government regulations killing small business and finally a moral corrupt society that is more interested in who won “Dancing with the Stars” or who is the next “American Idol” than the downward spiral of this once great society! We have Iran threatening us, a 20 something old man-child in North Korea with nuclear weapons and China is threatening to cut off our life support.
So what does this article have to do with survival? I can tell you the juices are flowing again and thanks to this great survival blog, Mr. Rawles best selling books, patriotic leaders like Chuck Baldwin, and other great writers, preppers and good loving Americans; I have found my old self and have once again put my family and friends into a much better place to weather a much bigger storm that is coming. People need to heed the words of so many not only on this blog but the hundreds of thousands that believe this country is headed for times we can’t even imagine.
Yes I have stored the food (two years at least for just for the two of us), yes I have secured heat, (wood burning stove) shelter and water. Yes, we not only have the gold and silver we kept from back in the late 1990s we now have substantially added to our supply which we believe one day will be worth substantially more than the worthless fiat dollars we have depended on for some many decades. We now have, thanks to books like: “Patriots” and “Survivors”, added a substantial supply of guns: AR-15, .30-30 Winchester, a .243 and .30-06 with scopes for longer range, two .22 rimfire rifles and a .22 pistol. My sidearm is a .45 Auto and the Mrs. has a .380 Auto. We have two .410 shotguns for small game, a Remington 870 20 gauge pump and Remington 12 gauge automatic. two more .38 Specials and a .25 automatic. We have over 20 thousand rounds of all types of ammunition and feel we need more. We have secured medical supplies, books, and survival gear from various suppliers including Amish items from Lehman’s non-electric store out in Ohio. We have accumulated a dozen or more hurricane lamps of various sizes and have an ample supply of lamp oil. We have purchase bulk wheat, sugar, salt and beans along with all the necessary non-electric tools to begin to live off the grid if needed. We have prepared our home best we can and also have friends and family that are starting to become believers and want to learn from us. We even have folks that want to start groups to discuss coming together to defend a small community. “Strength in numbers”!
If you think that our society is due for a real “wake up call” than I highly recommend you visit Lehman’s web-site to see how the Amish live and when the SHTF this group of Americans won’t miss a beat and will actually flourish as the masses scramble and sell off everything at pennies on the dollar. When we look back at history during the Great Depression, it was simple farm folk that already lived a simple sustainable life that weathered the storm and came out the other end better than most. Wake up people, and remember the old adage that says: “If we don’t learn from history then we are doomed to repeat history”. This could never be more valid than it is today.
In closing, if you have read the many articles, blogs, books and information that has described how many have seen the impending danger signs and you have not started to prepare; and you are still waiting for a sign than I say: good luck! The clock is ticking and like myself you may not get a second chance to prepare for the inevitable. Oh by the way we are selling all the toys and using the money for the many supplies I mentioned above. I thank God for second chances!
I pray that you heed the warning signs and not wait a any longer. Your first step is the hardest!