What is Prepping?

Hi Everyone,

Sorry it's been so long since my last post, but it has been a hectic week at work. It was 10:30 pm when I walked in my door last night and I left a lot of things undone there. But enough for the mundane things like work. Let's talk about more important things in life.

I realized the other day as I was listening to one of my favorite podcasts, that I was making an assumption about all of you that maybe I shouldn't, and thereby doing you a disservice. And for that I want to apologize.

I was assuming that everyone out there knew what I meant at the end of each posting when I say, "Keep prepping because what you do matters".  Maybe some of the audience doesn't know what I mean by "prepping" or if they do, they might not know why it matters. So I'd like to start a short series to cover this subject.

When I talk about prepping, I'm talking about being prepared for the inevitable "what if".  We all know things can go wrong in life. A lot of people worry about the big "what ifs".... What if the economy collapses..... What if there's a nuclear terrorist attack.....What if the world falls apart in 2012......?   Some of these things are, I suppose, possible, but none are very likely. 

When we first start becoming prepared, we need to prepare for the most likely things that could happen and those things will probaby affect no one other than our immediate family.  These are things like.... job loss.....death of a loved one....a protracted illness or injury.....loss of income.  These are all things that have a much higher probability of happening than the earth being struck by a meteor and would only be "the end of the world as we know it" for us individually. 

In the current economy, loss of income either from job loss or loss of investment returns are on the minds of many people.  "What if " I loose my job. Can I find another quickly? Will it pay enough to pay the bills? Or will I have to take a major pay cut just to get something? These are concerns that many people face daily right now.  As we get older we worry about other things too. What if my retirement fund runs out before I do?  What if my loved one gets cancer and needs medication we can't afford?  What if I break a hip and I can't take care of myself for a while? What if................? 

Prepping means acting before the "What Ifs" happens to avoid them if possible or have systems in place to make life more pleasant if they do. But lets start with one of the smallest "What ifs" out there. Something easy, not scary and that all of us can do with little or not problem.

What is one of the most common small "What ifs" that happens?  .... A power outage.  These happen regularly all over the country for various reasons:  too much draw on the electrical system during a heat wave, ice storms, tornados, a car crashed into an electrical pole.  It really doesn't matter why it happens, your immediate problem is the same..no electricity.

In the day time, if it's not going to be prolonged it's really not much of a problem except in extreme weather and even then it will take most houses a while to get uncomfortable. But after dark or a prolonged outage presents us with problems. 

One of your preps for this is to make a Blackout Kit. A small bag or plastic box to keep a couple of flashlights, extra batteries, some candles, and matches can be put together for little of nothing. Maybe even throw in a deck of cards and a cribbage board, or a board game to give you something to do while you're waiting for the lights to come back on. Then an inconvenience, becomes an adventure or maybe even a romantic evening.

Your Blackout kit should be kept in a location easily accessed from any place in the house in the dark. And everyone who lives there should know that location. Waiting for the electricity to come back on is much more pleasant if you don't have to do it in the dark.

If you live in a climate where it gets cold and your source of heat is electric or relies on electric to move the heat around, do you have a fireplace where you can burn wood. (Can you tell I live in Southern PRC where people actually have fireplaces where they can't burn wood?)  Do you have wood available? And kindling? Matches?  Do you see where I'm going with this.  We all play the "what if " game when we're worrying about something that's happened. But if we play that game BEFORE something happens, we can act beforehand and have a system in place to deal with the situation so a problem becomes only a minor inconvenience. It doesn't make you a paranoid to do this. It makes you "prepared". 

If this were a podcast and we were having a conversation, I'd continue on, but since this is only a blog, I'm going to split this up into a few segments.

So until then, keep prepping because what you do matters, and remember, "Just 'cause there's snow on the rooftop, doesn't mean there ain't a fire in the fireplace."

See you next time.

Candy