What is prepping?  How much can I prep?  What’s the use if I can’t do it all?

The situation: Inflation is rising ever higher.  Gas, food, cosmetics, utility bills, housing, everything is through the roof.  Additionally, a record 4 million Americans quit their jobs in October, with the rate of resignations still going strong.  Seems many have figured that it’s better to stay home and get paid not to deal with woke corporate America and forced gene therapy. And then some just don’t want to work. Ask small business owners right now how easy it is to find someone to simply answer the phones, and you will hear the same thing over and over again: “I can’t find anyone to take a reasonable wage that I can offer, and when I do, they don’t want to do anything!”

Now, add a trucker convoy in your own country and a Russian/Ukraine war whereby sanctions will cause us to shoulder "some costs” economically, especially at the gas pump.  At what point do you accept that prepping is a multi-tiered proposition and do something?  At what point do you take the game seriously and simply start getting ready?

When I took my HAM radio technician license exam 14 months ago, the other test takers and I began chatting about the present and the future in America as we waited for our tests to be scored.  Believe it or not, HAM radio attracts a lot of preppers.  One gentlemen offered hot apocalyptic prophesies about America’s future, while another was much tamer and more level headed. But at least each understood the need to take a multi-tiered approach to prepping and to get on it yesterday.  

The more terrified of the two men said something to the effect of “There is no doubt that war with China is imminent.  It is literally the end times.  Bio-tech security state, one world banking, the war on cash, and the war on agriculture… it’s all over, man!”  I stopped him the moment he brought up a slick Bible preacher/podcaster who has “cracked the code of the book of Revelation using complex algorithms applied to biblical numerology, heavily based off of the numbers, 3, 7, and 12.”  There were definitely some valid concerns he brought up, but the man simply went too far.

Then there was the much calmer gentlemen who sounded more like he had just come to the test center from milking his cows and checking his crypto portfolio, rather than the man who sounded like he just got done drinking Red-Line energy drinks while watching bogus “Q-Anon” videos.  The level headed man said, “I don’t know if its the end of the world, but I do know that life is full of all sorts of ‘end of somethings’.  If I lose my job tomorrow, it’s comforting to know that I have 3 months of food on hand.  If supply lines get cut again, I’m glad I actually have a year’s worth of food on hand and a solar and a gas generator.  And if the end times actually do come, let’s just say I’m not at square one for that situation either.”

What stops one from prepping?

The typical hurdle that most face when beginning to prep is feeling like the task is too overwhelming.  Some people avoid doing SOMETHING because they cannot imagine how hard it would be to do EVERYTHING.  “I can’t secure an eight foot thick underground lead bunker with a 35 year food supply!  Best to just keep focused on today’s work and trust in the Lord.  Look at the birds of the air and such… they neither sow nor reap.. (Mt 6:26)”  Such excuses may grant you temporary comfort now, but good luck eating that comfort when your “end of something” happens to you.

Would it be nice to have a totally off-grid, solar-powered, and armed to the teeth bunker for you and your family when “SHTF” (whatever that ends up looking like)?  Of course.  But should your inability to make perfect happen prevent you from accomplishing good?  Well, it’s not what men do.  It’s not what your ancestors did at one point or another when they had to defend a city or a castle in the ancient or medieval world.  Man up and start by getting your 3 month supply on your pantry shelves.  If you have to simply say no to a mandate, that may be all you ever needed to prep for, but you will be thankful when that time comes.

Some men can’t ever start because their spouses are not on board.  No time like the present to finally eradicate feminism from your home.  News flash for those who are behind: all the waves of feminism were well funded by men who found an opportunity to either hedge or short off of the massive societal changes these waves have wrought on.  From the “I must be like the man” Suffragettes, the “I don’t need a man” Welfare Queens or the “I don’t need kids or to be at home” Pantsuits, to whatever today’s woke contradiction laden “reproductive rights for all menstruating persons!” wave is, there have always been suckers willing to abuse themselves at the cost of Western Civilization and to the gain of the same kinds of over-world bad actors who tell you that "you will own nothing and love it". 

Look, women fight for a standard of living and to feel a comfort of psychological security in ways that often dismiss the unfortunate circumstances of reality.  That part is quite natural to them.  It’s how they are wired.  But don’t let the accidental streak of modern feminism (it has been programmed into all of our females from an early age in this “egalitarian” society of ours, and old habits die hard) be what stands in the way of you and your masculine obligation to take care of the basic needs of your family.  Be willing to bet that there is a small chance that our mighty empire does not get to continue in hyper excess and luxury ad infinitum.  Usually it takes a man to accept and put his foot down to prepare for that.

And to be fair, some men have a difficult time dealing with the psychology of prepping too.  It’s reasonable.  Some feel that prepping makes them overly concerned about the dangers at hand or in the future.  They say, “my mind just can’t go there!”  But that’s not what King Hezekiah said when he gave the Judeans another century of independence.  And they dug a several hundred meter tunnel with copper axes.  You can start with 3 months of food and work your way up from there.

If you have the right attitude, prepping is not a despairing and pessimistically sad acivity.  It can be more like a hobby and an investment strategy.  For example, some men have invested all sorts of money and time in day trading and “betting” that FANG (Facebook, Amazon, Netflix, and Google) would come out of the Plandemic like bandits.  How clever it was to realize you could make money on big tech during a time when everyone had to be stuck in their homes by law.  Almost makes you wonder which party all of the big tech moguls signal their allegiance to.  The party in favor of shut downs or the party more resistant to them? Hmmm...

What else could you have bet on over the last two years and come out wildly ahead on?  Gold? Silver?  No.  Try brass and lead.  Two years ago a box of 50 rounds of 9mm was $10 at Bass Pro.  Today, people are easily selling 9mm for 70 cents a round.  That’s a 250% return.  Better than any bank, and also better than even FANG can offer.  Oh yeah, and you can also shoot those rounds if you ever want or need to.  So you should take your life’s savings and put it all into ammunition in a giant bombproof safe int your garage?  Heck no!  Diversify your portfolio.  

So How does one get Started?

On the hobby side of things, consider what you will most immediately get out of prepping, even if you never directly use the things you stock up on or build up to get you through your  “end of something”.  IT’S THE SKILLS, STUPID!!  

Have you raised chickens or have considered raising chickens?  Why in the world would you do that?  Can't you just get a dozen of eggs at the grocery store for $3?  By the time you factor in the cost of feed, time it takes to raise them, lost chickens due to predators, building a coop, etc… when will you even see a return on investment, if ever?  I will tell you when… the moment you realize that while your son’s peers are playing Minecraft on the computer (or worse) he can confidently butcher and prepare a chicken upon command.  You will experience that ROI when you and your family first feel the success of rebuilding the broken section of your coop from the javelina damage or the coyote massacre from the night before.  Your craftsmanship will improve with practice.  Your sense of defense and understanding of cooperation with and the overcoming of nature will constantly improve while you raise your chickens, goats, cows, rabbits (insane meat yield) or whatever other livestock you believe you can manage on your property.  And when eggs are no longer $3 per dozen at the grocery store, you will experience it then, too.

How about the stuff you need now?  Get yourself some food-safe metal barrels and fill them with foods that last “forever”.  You can always supplement your diet with beans and rice now or over the next several months when S doesn’t HTF (Again, smart investment).
Gee, it sounds like prepping is just forking over a comfortable standard of living in exchange for insurance.  NO!  Prepping is more like facing up to real possibilities (3 month, 6 month, 2 year, 10 year setbacks) and building up ways to respond to them.  Just build one tier at a time.  Don’t think of it as reducing any standard you currently have.  Think of it as embracing the New Standard.  One where you and your family learn to be a more rugged and paternally led household ready to choose hard work, sacrifice, and homegrown oranges over Netflix and Uber delivered Cheesecake Factory.  Learn some basics of electricity and off-grid power, rather than face throwing away all the meat in your freezer over a potential blackout.  Like when an EMP happens???  Maybe. Or maybe you lose power for a more likely and more boring reason.  Either way.  Or perhaps some other fishy “global crisis” comes up again where you will feel coerced to take a prepackaged solution offered by your favorite Hegelian elitists.  Won’t it feel nice to have your own home made solution ready to go?  That’s freedom.

Conclusion

Prepping is not glamorous.  It is not always fun, and it does not make you invincible.  To be honest, in my own humble experience, the journey is the reward.  Take, for example, when my family and I were treated to baskets full of another family's freshly grown squash and jalapenos from their recently developed Great Reset Victory Garden.  It was apparent that the joy and excitement that family felt over maintaining this beautiful garden was already paying them wonderful dividends.  And nothing says, “that family loves my family” quite like a huge bite of home grown hot peppers that they blended up and made into salsa for us.  Additionally, it’s good to know who I can trade with when I need those hot peppers.  Because my addiction to them won’t go away just because we may face tough times ahead.  Oh, and that’s just one family in my network that I have been prepping alongside.  Hey wait a minute… it’s almost as if simply being tight with and staying connected with like minded and diligent people in these times is an aspect of prepping in and of itself.  Maybe another article on that is due soon...

Are you watching the news right now?  Are Russian military strikes in the Ukraine, bank freezes of freedom fighters in Canada, and the relentlessness of the WEF shaking your sense of security, confidence in the buying power of the dollar, and freedom itself?  It’s all making me uneasy too.  But you have options on how to respond to that.  You can keep watching Fox News and enjoy the entertainment of Tucker and The Five getting in their “I told you so!”s about Biden and the rest, while you shake your head and fists in despair and anger (Big Pharmaceutical adds just around the corner, by the way… hmmm) or you can do something.  Not everything, but at least you can do something that will end up making you and your family, happier, tougher, and more prepared for whatever “end of the something” comes your way.  End even if that “end of something” never comes, you will be glad you prepared for it anyway.  I guarantee it.

God Bless,

Gadfly