Thursday, February 11, 2016

First steps...needs editing

When was the first time you thought about preparing for a extreme disaster?  Well, maybe besides this presidential race....

I have been a long time Survivalist- in theory. In my mind. I have read books, thought out plan of actions, and thought about what I would do if I had to. What would I grab? What supplies did I have on hand? Where to go and how to get there. It comes down to how to make it through and come out alive.

Recently, I began to work on this in earnest. Prior actions were simple ones like snagging my brothers Boy Scout Handbook to learn, and reading many science fiction books that talk about 'end of the world' and the characters are surviving it. Now, don't laught at that because some of those books were written by authors that did their homework and are probably preppers themselves. But that's for another blog.

It wasn't till I met a new friend that prepping came to fruitiation and I began the journey to actually put some hands on into Survial and Prepping world. He is a Prepper and on our very first conversation we started talking about this. He has shown me his B.O.B. - bug out bag - and taught me about M.R.E.s and how to start a campfire. Things that I knew I needed to know, but had never taken that step to learn.

What is an M.R.E? I asked the same question. Meal Ready to Eat. It's military created and it's a dinner in a packet. With heating envelopes and all that you would need to eat a meal when you can't get to fire or proper set up of a camp to create a meal.

Now I have been taking baby steps to read and learn and collect items needed. He and I have done lots of shopping for simple items - date night is going to the Ranger Surplus store in Tysons Corners VA and we had a blast. Heck, his birthday gift to me was a great axe/hammer combo, some M.R.E.'s and a wire saw. lol. It may sound funny to some, but I love it!

I have seen lists of what you need for your Bug Out Bag, for the pantry to have food for a year, for items that will be needed for after the diaster. Or in Prepper terms the SHTF - the shit hits the fan - and these are items that it makes sense to have on hand. Sometimes they are an expense needed - a good Bug Out Bag or good hiking boots. Sometimes they are things you can look at and think of another way to do it. That's my speciality. I am on a tight budget so I try to think about what would work instead of that store bought item.

This blog was started because I want to both chronicle my journey into this life and  help others that are just beginning. I will be sharing infomation from articles, youtube, other blogs and from the friends. You will find information from my experiences, along with links to other articles, youtube videos and books that will help in starting out.

There is a lot of information out there and it covers a wide variety of subjects. There are various types of Prepper/survivalists from the Off the grid to just being ready for an emergency. Reading the blogs will help you decide how you, your household can best be prepared.