Prepping Pillars Part Two

Hey - how's that for alliteration? Sorry about the delay, but I've been off the farm working so this is the first chance I've had to continue the blog post.

Soooo.....I'm covering the final six pillars today.  Let's begin!

Heating. This is a big one, especially in the northern tier of our country (the US, for those of you elsewhere - but it can affect you as well).  So, let's look at a scenario.  It's November, and the weather is starting to turn into winter.  You've just put the kids on the bus, or they're down doing their barn chores before starting homeschool work. You start doing your morning chores - and the power goes out. Drat! Change of plans - you can't run the dishwasher (no electric, no water), so you decide to sweep the floors. You get that done, and you're still feeling fairly comfy. You decide to finish your cup of tea and read the paper (can't check email - no electricity). As you sit at the table, you realize you feel a bit chilly. Hmmm. Put on a sweater. Go back to reading. You're still cold. Go check the thermostat. It's in the low 60s. You realize as the day goes on and you have no power that the house is getting more and more chilly. What can you do? If your house is run on electric, you've got to think outside the box (I know, it's a recurring theme here).  How can you keep your family comfortable? Do you have a fireplace? If yes, get a fire burning, try to keep everyone in that room, and set everyone up in front of the fireplace and build a "wall" behind them using whatever furniture, blankets, etc, you have to keep the warmth bouncing back toward the family rather than dissipating toward the ceiling. I get a lot of ideas such as that from watching those survival shows that are all the rage on TV these days - glean where you can, right? From a prepping standpoint, you should make sure you have down comforters, woolen socks and blankets, extra sweatshirts and "hoodies", gloves, knitted caps and balaclavas, and scarves put away and ready to go. If you have no heating for an extended period of time, depending on what time of year and how hard your winters are, you may not be able to shelter in place. You may have to leave and stay with friends or in a hotel that does have power. I just want to get you thinking and preparing.

Next pillar - Spiritual and Mental Prepping. Now, to me personally, these two areas must be number one! You may not feel the same, which is why they are just put amongst the others, because I want to meet people where they are.  First, Spiritual.  I'm Catholic, and my Faith is everything to me, so I firstly want to have my soul in a state of constant readiness to meet the Lord. I fail every day, but I keep trying. I can't take any of my preps with me, and they won't matter worth a hill of beans when I stand before the Throne of God for judgement, so I best keep my priorities straight. For me, that means frequent reception of the sacraments, going to daily Mass as I can, and having a strong and frequent daily prayer life. I need to get right with God, then everything else will fall into place.  As to the physical side of spiritual preparedness, I want to keep in my BOB (bug out bag) a rosary or rosaries, prayer book, small Bible, holy water, blessed salt, and any other sacramentals I feel may help me, my family, and others. OK, I've said my peace on that. For my readers, your spiritual preparedness may and probably will be different, depending on where you are in your faith walk.

The second tenet of this pillar is Mental Prepping. So much of what we do and how successful we are at it is based on our attitude toward it. I read an anonymous quote in high school that stuck with me all these years. "The older I get, the more I realize the impact of attitude." Think about those words for a minute or two. Let them sink in. Now - what kind of an attitude do you generally have? What kind of personality? Are you optimistic? Pessimistic? Melancholic? Phlegmatic? Sanguine? Choleric? Do you see problems, or do you see opportunities? Do you see failure, or one way your idea won't work? You see where I'm coming from now, don't you? People who survive disastrous happenings do so not necessarily because they are amazing survivalists, but because they had THE RIGHT ATTITUDE!! So - start cultivating a different attitude if you don't feel you have your head in the right space to survive difficulties. It will take a while, as it's like exercising an out-of-shape body. Baby steps will get you there. You CHOOSE how to react to things, so you can CHOOSE to change that. Now, I'm not talking about people who have to shoulder medical depression or bipolar disorder. I understand the difference there, and just wanted to make that clear. A vital part of this is to run scenarios in your head. Something along the lines of, "What would I do if x happened?"  Those mental exercises are vital in helping you adapt quickly and survive strongly.  So - start mentally shifting to a new paradigm!

Pillar number nine - fuel. What do I mean by fuel? Well, what keeps your homes and cars going? What happens if you can't get that fuel? Can you substitute? Can you find other sources? Here is an example. I talked above about heating your home during an electrical outage. In our home, we have a propane furnace. Now, that runs by electricity, so it does me no good with an outage. So, we also have a wood and coal burning furnace. I can use either one, depending on what is going on in my life.  I have a redundant system, which I've told you is so very important. I may not be able to use the propane furnace, but I can surely go out in the woods, culling dead wood for my furnace, and only using sweat equity! While the furnace does use an electric blower, it's in the basement, and heat rises, so I can use the old vents that are in the floor of this 100+ year old farmhouse to spread that heat. All it takes is a little Dremel saw to open them up and reinsert the grates. I'd do it if an EMP hit or I knew we'd be powerless for a long period of time. Considering where it is located in the basement, I'd probably have the family set up shop in the room right above it and close off that room to conserve heat.  As for gasoline for your cars - do you always keep your tanks topped off? Our rule is never let it go below a half tank. This is especially important in the winter.  We also have jerry cans filled and kept in the barn.  Another fuel - lamp oil and kerosene. Make sure you have enough of those. Also, did you know that any cooking oil can be used for certain hurricane lamps? Don't throw out your old cooking oil - relabel it lamp fuel and use it! Get an extra propane tank for your bbq, or get briquettes and keep them dry and covered. Just think outside the box!

Pillar number ten - communications. This is rough. Many of us have cell or mobile phones. Some of us have even gotten rid of our landlines. So, in an EMP, grid-down situation, chances are cell phones and cordless home phones won't work. It won't even take something that big - any disaster causes the lines to be overwhelmed.  So - keep a simple, "old fashioned" phone that doesn't require electricity. If you got rid of your landline, that won't help you. You'll have to hope a neighbor still has one, and that the lines aren't down.  In a long term situation, how will you keep in touch with what's going on? There are a few options. I'll say right now that I'm not a comm expert at all, so I'm sure some of my readers will have scads more info than I do. I suggest a good set of walkie talkies to keep in contact with family members - we live on a farm and they are invaluable. What about a Ham radio? CB? I know, with a grid-down situation you might as well have two tin cans and a string, but if you're prepping, you need redundant systems (gee, there are those words again!). If your family is separated, have a family-specific code word that ONLY your family members know, so that if an outsider says they have info on your family, they have to have been given the code word for you to know the information is authentic (by the way, this works for stranger danger issues with your kids as well). The base word of communications is COMMUNICATE. You NEED to have a plan set out for your family in the case of a disaster so that, if they can't get home, they know where your meeting place is to be, and they need to know various ways to get there. Even if they aren't into the prepping things, the fact that you've gone to the trouble of having a plan for them will greatly help them.

Pillar number eleven - financial preparedness. Wow. Sigh. Ugh. OK, now that those are over with - let me just say that I feel it is VITAL to be debt-free as a tenet of preparedness. Have I done so? No, but I'm working on it. It is Scriptural to try very hard to not be in debt. Now, I'm not necessarily talking about a mortgage or a car loan, although Dave Ramsey and some of the other financial gurus may disagree. I'm talking consumer debt. Credit Cards. Home equity loans. So - do your best to get out of debt so that YOU have control of YOUR money. Once that debt is gone, you owe no one. You can make the best use of the money God has gifted you with, and please - ask Him to help you use it in the best way for your family and to help others.  Also, you can prep more when you aren't sending all that hard-earned cash to the financial institutions which are holding you over a financial barrel!  Secondly, I want to strongly suggest that you keep cash with  you at all times. We keep cash in certain places that we can access in case of a grid-down scenario. You aren't going to be able to get cash out of your accounts if the banks can't access the computers. There are no passbooks anymore! For those of you too young to understand what I mean, go look it up LOL. So, you don't have cash? Well, then, you won't be able to get anything from the grocery store, drug store, gas station. It just makes sense to have a *gasp* redundant system of cash-flow, right? Also, what if you need to barter? Have some junk silver - that's pre-1964 silver coins. They'll be worth some in trade. That brings us to barterable goods, which is another topic. Just something for you to think about. I'll perhaps cover that in a later blog post.

Last but not least - pillar number twelve - security. Now, this can mean your personal security, or it can mean the security of your family, home, community, etc. I suggest we all get in better shape. What does that have to do with security? You can fight off attackers better when you aren't 50 pounds overweight and wheezing, right? It just makes sense. On an aside, if you're using shank's mare (that's walking to you neophytes), being in shape makes sense on that level as well.  Take self-defense classes. Carry on you some form of defense, whether that be bear spray, mace, a monkey fist, or a really heavy purse (ask me how I know!).  Please DO look up and obey your state's regulations with regards to any of these things.  As to guns - I'm not getting into detail in this post apart from saying if you choose to carry a firearm, please get TRAINED by an NRA instructor or someone equally qualified. Don't just go out and buy any old gun. Go to a range, have someone working there or your NRA instructor help you learn how to shoot, and try out a few guns to see what is comfortable for you to use. Be trained in your state's gun laws. Don't EVER carry a gun unless you are prepared to use it. Practice often. Pray hard about it.  I've alluded to what most of you think when security is concerned - shooting another human being. However, there have been times here on the farm where I have had to shoot a predator so as to protect my chickens. I've had a coyote walk not six feet away from me - coyote season is year-round here. That's another form of security - protecting your food source. Hunting is another reason to carry. OK, enough about that. Home security is important. Good doors and windows and working lock mechanisms. Only you know what will make you feel secure in and around your own home, so talk it over with your family and figure out what works for you.  Go back to working on those mental exercises...what would we do if x happened? That will help you decide what security measures are best for you and yours.

OK, ready for comments!!! What did you like best? Least? What did I leave out? Was there something else I should have covered? Can't wait to hear from you!