Dialogue Between a New Prepper and an Experienced Prepper

Prepping has come into its own in the past few years as more and more people realize the importance of systematically and logically storing food and supplies for their families. And it’s not just for doomsday situations either – having extra goods set aside for your family gives you peace of mind in case there’s job loss, medical emergencies, weather disasters, and more.

Have you thought about joining the preparedness movement? On the blog today, join us as we host a discussion with two preppers – one who has years of experience and one who has just a year of experience. Grab a cup of coffee, a spot of tea, or your favorite soda, and see how these two preppers compare and share what they’re learning and how they make prepping work for them.

Karen is a seasoned prepper that’s always learning more and growing in her preparedness efforts.  She and her husband have five children (19,19,15,14,9), a dog, and three cats, and live on five acres in rural Illinois.

TexasGirl is a new prepper in the Lone Star State. She and her family of five (this includes the two dogs) live in the suburbs of a large city on a one-acre lot.

Questions:

1.) What made you start prepping and how long have you been at it?

Karen:

I got started prepping because I started couponing about 15 years ago.  When we amassed almost an entire room full of canned and boxed goods from couponing, I realized that while we had food if we encountered an emergency, that there were other things that we would need to weather a ‘storm’ whether actual or figurative.

We continued our preparations by purchasing a Berkey Water Filter and an All American Pressure Canner.  From there, we realized that we needed to expand to long-term food storage, and we started learning about how to store food for 30+ years.  But the learning continued – I learned how to cook and make everything from scratch from bread to noodles to bagels, and yogurt, and toothpaste, and deodorant, and shampoo and so many other things.  We always tried to homestead on whatever property we had at the time, learning a ton along the way.  We recently moved to a 5-acre plot in the country and are learning a TON about homesteading on a bigger level and how to create our own self-sufficiency in a way that we’ve never known before.

TexasGirl:

It took a global pandemic to kickstart my preps! I started learning about prepping in March 2020, right after the world went into quarantine. My journey started, literally, on Friday the 13^th, as I watched newscasts and read online updates voraciously all day long, as flights were being canceled, as schools around here announced extended Spring Breaks, and as church services were canceled. I was stunned by how fast the world changed.

Usually, the LAST thing I ever want to do before an emergency is run to the grocery store for supplies – because I know that’s when everyone goes crazy, and I hate being viewed as one of those panicked shoppers. But even my very calm-in-a-crisis husband suggested we go to the store — “just to pick up a few extra supplies to make sure we’re covered for a few weeks.” We saw empty store shelves; we saw people with shopping baskets full to the brim with frozen meats; we saw people with fear in their eyes. I resolved that I would never shop in a crisis again. I would research and be prepared. I had no idea what I was getting myself into, but just about the first thing I found was this blog — A Year Without the Grocery Store. It was the perfect place to start.

2.) Part of prepping is customizing your supplies for your own family’s unique needs. Are there some unusual (even funny) things you store?

Karen:

I store a bunch of crazy things – like alcohol – vodka (for making tinctures from medicinal herbs), rum (for homemade cough syrup).  I store items to make our own health supplies.  Items like beeswax (for lip balm and deodorant), xylitol (for toothpaste), liquid minerals (for toothpaste) bentonite clay (for deodorant), activated charcoal (for poultices), essential oils (for therapeutic uses). We store a lot of different herbs and supplements, as we’re learning to deal with our health issues as much by ourselves as we can.

Another crazy thing we buy and store are antique items – old-fashioned cooking tools, old-fashioned woodworking tools, old-fashioned yard tools.

We are gluten-free to we don’t store a lot of things like pasta, but we’ve learned how to do sourdough bread, noodles, crusts, etc.  My gluten-intolerant children can tolerate wheat that has been soured.

We also homeschool, so I store a TON of school supplies.  If I couldn’t buy another book or item for my kids to do school, I could – though it would be difficult – complete each of their educations through high school with just what I have on hand.

TexasGirl:

When I first started prepping (remember, I’ve only been prepping for a little over a year), I was hyper-focused on some really odd things. Sure, I was buying canned foods, but I was really worried about losing access to personal care items. I bought a LOT of Chapstick and lip balm. All things considered, Chapstick was cheap, it didn’t take up much room to store, and I couldn’t imagine not having years of Chapstick at the ready in a SHTF scenario! I also bought lots of extra jars of face moisturizer and various soaps. (I’ve since learned more about how to DIY these items myself, so even if I run out, I can make replacements.) I feel like I’ve moved through several prepping phases. I started with comfort – how to maintain our present level of comfort and provision. But as I began researching situations which cause shortages or societal upheaval, I moved into the phase of protection – how to protect our family, whether that meant bugging-in or bugging-out. (Bugging-Out Vs. TEOTWAWKI – Don’t Get Them Confused, You’ve Heard About Bugging Out, But What About Bugging In?  )

3.)  Speaking of bugging-out, do you have a bug-out location? How extensive are your bug-out plans?

Karen:

We no longer have a bug out location – as we now live more than 8 miles from the nearest highway.  Our home is our bug in and bug out location.  It is also (more than likely) the bug-out location for our church as well, and since we have 4 outbuildings, we could ‘house’ everyone from our church if we had to.  If we had to leave because of an event like a meltdown of a nuclear plant to the north-east of us, we have friends who live on farms in Tennessee and Iowa that we could travel to – if need be, but that is not our current plan.

TexasGirl:

At this time, we don’t have a bug-out location that we own. It’s daunting to think about, plus owning a bug-out location is expensive (land, shelter, etc.). A prepping friend has said we could bug-out to their family’s place in the country, but we’ve never been there, much less done a “run-through” to see what bugging out would look like for us. Thinking through different bug-out scenarios is something that needs to go on my list of goals! At this point, I’m focusing on how to bug-in and keep my family and our provisions safe.

4.) When it comes to storing food for the long-term, how much is enough for you? Is there ever a point where you’ll feel like you’ve got what you need?

Karen:

Ha!  My husband and I disagree (to a small degree) on how much is enough; however, we have gotten to the point that we have VERY LITTLE ROOM for long-term (or for that matter) short-term food storage either.  We have maybe space for two pallets in our basement for long-term food storage, but everything else must be in a non-climate-controlled storage.

So If I had my ‘I’d rathers’ or “druthers” as we call them, I would have three months of short-term food storage and 9 months of long-term food storage, and we would have a LARGE garden.  But I no longer have the space for that.  So our plan is this – we’re going to put up a hoop house greenhouse so we can grow food all year long, and we’ll strive to keep a 3 month supply of short-term food storage and a 3 month supply of long-term food storage besides that year round garden.  We have recently decided to invest in a freeze drier, so that we can store more food in less space and keep almost all of the nutritional content of the food.  It’s cheaper than purchasing freeze dried food from places like Thrive Live – which we have used for years.

TexasGirl:

A few years ago, I went through a financial stewardship course and learned that most people, despite how much money they have in savings, say if they just had twice as much, they’d feel prepared for the future. So whether it was a mailman or a millionaire, each end of the financial spectrum imagines they will feel secure and content “if I only had twice as much.”

Compare that to a recent video I watched where a YouTube prepper (with over a half-million  subscribers) said, “I’d like to have twice as much as I currently have. If I had twice as much, I’d feel secure.” He didn’t reveal exactly what he had, but since he has been prepping for over a decade (and has made prepping instruction his full-time job), I can imagine his preps are pretty deep. And yet, he still feels the need to double it.

It’s human nature to never be satisfied with what we have. It’s a chasm of security that will never be filled or satisfied. That was a huge wake-up call to me.

In the past 16 months as a newbie prepper, I’ve followed the plan and guidance on this blog and have stored pretty close to a year’s worth of shelf-stable food for my family. I’ve already noticed my subconscious nagging me with feelings of “not enough.” I do plan to keep adding to my storage, but I am seeking to balance those natural inclinations of dissatisfaction with the cognitive reality that I am immensely more prepared than I have ever been in my life and, without a doubt, more prepared than 99% of the people I know. I will probably never feel like I can sit back and put my feet up, because humans aren’t wired that way. But I also remember that there is a faith component here that brings me peace in the midst of insecurity.

Stay Tuned for Part 2 Next Week.

Do You Have Questions for us?

Next week, we’ll continue this conversation between TexasGirl and me.  But before we do, do you have any thoughts or questions based on what we’ve shared?  Drop them in the comments below so that we can answer them either below or in another post.