How Our Preparedness Needs to Change As a Result of This Election – Part 1

Preparedness was the last thing on my mind last Saturday afternoon. I was at a lady’s tea for my church when I heard a notification from my phone go off saying that Biden had won the election.  It wasn’t what I was expecting and put a little bit of a damper on the festivities.  Now, I want to say, that after having watched and listened and read A LOT for the past few days, I do not believe that Biden IS CURRENTLY the president-elect.  That can only be determined by the election commission, NOT by the news outlets.

I’m also afraid that – even if President Trump is correct and the election has been rigged – that he’s going to do something stupid – not illegal, but stupid on many counts.

So whether President Trump is right and the election has been tainted and he does something stupid or Biden really is the president-elect, my thoughts and preparedness suggestions are the same.

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My Gut Reaction to the Election

First off, I had to remind myself that God is still on the throne.  Despite how things feel at the moment, He has a purpose even in this, and I’m going to trust it.

So I tried to focus on the ladies at the tea instead of putting my brain power into my thoughts on the election.  Once I got home, however, these were my thoughts.

I don’t trust the results of this election.

When I went in to vote, I had my driver’s license out.  I was told to put it away because it wasn’t needed.  How do you know that I am who I am if I don’t have to prove who I am!  Really?

The Question Isn’t Do I Like Biden

If I really believed that the election results were honest and accurate, while I wouldn’t LIKE Biden as a president, I would be able to much more easily accept it.  But the truth of the matter is that he would still be the president even if I couldn’t accept it.

How I Think Voting Should Be Done

I would love to see us only be able to vote IN PERSON and WITH an ID.  Now, I do realize that there are some lower-income people who don’t have ID’s.  I would be okay with more Licensing places in lower-income areas so that people who don’t have cars or must walk can get to where they need to go in order to get an ID.  I would also be okay with more polling places in lower-income areas so that people who can’t get around as easily CAN vote.  But all of this because I do believe that voting should only be done IN PERSON with an ID.

Preparedness On the Up-tick

Preparedness is going to pick up a LOT during this next year.  A lot of people are already moving toward being better prepared because of Covid.  They realize that they need more than just a week’s worth of food in their homes.  Now, people who are concerned that we’re going to have a president who will try to force socialist ideals down our throats will be even more interested in getting prepared.

Keep Your Eyes Open

This is the time that we should be looking around us for people who want to get on board but might need a little help.

What You Should Change About Your Preparedness as a Result of This Election

Preparedness and Food Security

The number one thing that you can do right now is to secure your family’s food sufficiency.  In our circles, we don’t want to be dependant on the government to feed us!  And even someone who can go A Year Without the Grocery Store will eventually run out of food.  If nothing happens this year or next year or even in five years, it doesn’t matter.  You will be so much better off if you take as many of these steps as you can right now.  Maybe the next book should be called “Eliminate the Grocery Store For Good”?  It won’t be, but I like the ring of it, don’t you?

So how do we become food sufficient?

Garden

I think some people have already started moving in this direction.  I know that garden seeds were not easily found this year.  Even if nothing happens for several years (or ever) you really need to really KNOW how to grow your own foods as much as possible, and the only way that that happens is to start practicing NOW.  Each year, our garden produces a little more and I get a little better.  We figure out what we did wrong, what animals are eating our foods, and how to keep them away.  There are SO MANY questions that you just need to figure out to be an effective gardener!

• What are the basic steps that set your garden up for success?
• Which foods work better in containers and which foods better in the ground?
• What fertilizers work well?
• Which fertilizers can you make yourself in case you don’t have access to a store?
• Which types of plants need to be moved every year and which ones shouldn’t be?
• How do you save seeds?
• How do you start plants from your OWN seeds?
• When do you start the seeds?
• Which seeds should be started inside, and which ones should be directly sown into the ground?
• How far apart do you plant specific seeds?
• How deep do you plant specific seeds?
• Which plants work well planted near the other and which shouldn’t be planted near each other?

And this just scratches the surface of what you need to know to garden effectively.  The great news is that you can learn most of this so easily, but it can be overwhelming and you don’t want to be learning on the fly if your family’s food security is resting on your non-existent gardening ability.

Animals

Do you have the ability to keep animals?  And by ability, I mean are you allowed AND do you have space?

There may come a time where the “allowed” part shouldn’t be a concern unless you’re afraid of someone turning you in.

Even if you live in the “burbs” there are still animals that you can keep which will feed your family.  Rabbits are a wonderful meat animal.  They reproduce quickly.  They are gentle, and they are fairly easy to butcher.

I love the fact that you can use chickens both for meat and for eggs.  They are also another great backyard animal which is fairly easy to care for and provides you with a lot of benefit to keeping them.

If you have even a little bit of land having goats is an option.  While these are a bit more work, they can provide you with both milk and meat.  Goats milk takes some time to get used to, and it comes homogenized so there’s no REAL cream like with cows, so you won’t get butter.  But even with those downsides, goats provide some definite upsides for a small family homestead.

Just keeping these three animals can make you almost completely self-sufficient.  You’ll have meat, eggs, milk.  If you have a garden, you’ll be fairly food sufficient if you know about . . .

Food Preservation 

Having the ability to grow your own meat is wonderful, but whether it’s meat or veggies, there will be a need to know how to preserve your food, so you can eat during the winter months when you can’t grow food.

There are really two main types of food preservation that you should depend on – pressure canning and water bath canning.  If you’ve never canned before, Melissa K. Norris has a wonderful canning class.  She will teach you both water bath canning AND pressure canning!  Please sign up!

In the next blog post, we’re going to talk about two more changes to our preparedness that would be wise want to make in the shorter-term.  Look for that post later this week.

What About You?

What is your gut reaction to what you’ve been hearing about the election?  Are there areas of preparedness do you think most people need to change?

Together Let’s Love, Learn, Practice, and Overcome!