So, if you missed the start of this dialogue last time, “Texas Girl” and Karen covered four questions:
(1) What made you start prepping and how long have you been at it?
(2) Are there some unusual (even funny) things you store?
(3) Do you have a bug-out location? How extensive are your bug-out plans?
And
(4) When it comes to storing food long-term how much is enough for you? Is there ever a point when you feel like you’ve got what you need?
This time we’re going to cover another six questions.
5.) What are some prepping habits that have become part of your life?
Karen:
Menu planning, stocking up, canning, dehydrating, making our own personal care products, herbalism, cooking from scratch, fermentation, sourdough, and just learning. Always learning and practicing is the best part of preparedness. We are excited in the next year to add animal husbandry to that list!
TexasGirl:
Pretty early on, I took Karen’s advice from this blog post 10 Everyday Decisions that Impact Survival and Preparedness (ayearwithoutthegrocerystore.com) and started keeping my gas tank topped off as often as possible. I used to get down to a quarter of a tank or lower, but now I try to always refill the tank when I get close to half empty.
As my son and I have gone to the grocery store in the past year, he has watched me buy a little extra of a few items each time so that slowly and surely, I’ve filled our pantry with shelf stable foods. I’ve talked about why we’re buying various items. He rolls his eyes (often) when we take side trips to the Dollar Store to pick up extra things like Bic lighters, candles, and more. So, last month when we were at Costco, I mentioned we needed to get some vitamins. We found what we needed, and he said, “Here, get TWO!” as he grabbed two huge bottles. I asked why, just to see what he would say. He said, “Because we’re preppers!” Score!
Karen:
Yes, and no. My husband is the pastor of our church, and if something big happened, we would work together with those in our church to help each other through the hard times. We also have other friends who are not a part of an official group who live within ten minutes of us that we could also call on to join with us if something happened.
TexasGirl:
Not yet. As the old saying goes, “If it is to be, it’s up to me.” I have been making some inroads with a few trusted friends who have started to prep, but we haven’t formed an official group yet. I think having a MAG would definitely make me feel more secure about the unknowns of the future.
But until we are able to form one or join one, I’m trying to up my skill set so that I can bring some specific survival or homesteading skills to the group. I mean, in a post-SHTF scenario, I don’t know how beneficial it’s going to be to have a professional writer in the MAG! So, I’m working on learning how to make things that we usually purchase so I can teach others. I’ve learned how to make apple cider vinegar, laundry detergent, toothpaste, lotions, bread that uses a potato starter instead of yeast, and cheese (though my success rate is still just 50-50). I’ve also been working hard on my gardening skills for the past two seasons.
7.) Since a prepper’s work is never done, what’s on your bucket list? (Not your 5-gallon bucket list, but your dream “bucket list”)
Karen:
It’s interesting how your ‘bucket list’ changes with locations.
- I would love to lift our house and to dig a basement UNDER our home! We NEED more storage space. It might be doable, but it would be extremely expensive.
- An actual greenhouse – not just a hoop house. We’re considering hoop houses, but that’s not what I’d prefer.
- We need to repair the leak in our pond. Our pond will provide us with both emergency water AND fish! We already have a Berkey water filter with replacement filters (see TexasGirl below)
- Whole House Generator
- Solar Panels with battery backup
- Dedicated climate controlled food storage space
- Fenced garden
- Peach, Plum, Pecan, Walnut, Cherry
TexasGirl:
As mentioned above, I’d love to have a bug-out location, but that’s a pretty tall order. A few more affordable items would be:
- Harvest Right Freeze Dryer (Karen – We JUST bought one!! So excited! It hasn’t even arrived yet)
- Big Berkey Water Filter and a bunch of replacement filters
- About 200 gallons of rain catchment containers
- Solar power panels, battery, and generator
- A tornado shelter
- A greenhouse
- A lazy river pool (Oops, that’s from another dream list!)
8.) What area of preparedness do you feel your family is most lacking in at the
moment? And what steps are you planning to take in that area next?
Karen:
At the moment, I feel like we’re most lacking in practicing our growing and alternate cooking systems. We have had some form of a garden for the past 8-9 years. Our most successful garden was when we had raised beds, but this year gardening directly in the ground, things were R-O-U-G-H rough. We ended up mowing our garden it was that bad.
I’m good with waterbath canning. I have pressure canned, but would like to feel like I’m actually accomplished with that – though Melissa K. Norris has a wonderful class on pressure canning, that I highly recommend. We’ve purchased a freeze dryer and need to learn to use that. I need to practice more with my solar oven. We would like to purchase a greenhouse and learn to grow and irrigate in there. I feel like we’re great with what we’ve purchased. Now we need to learn to be more self-sufficient so that when our purchases run out, we have already hit the ground running and barring an act of God, we would know beyond a shadow of a doubt that we can feed our family WELL.
TexasGirl:
For my little family, our most needed area would be that we lack a bug-out plan. Considering we’ve only been on the prep journey for about 18 months, we have outlined a fairly solid bug-in plan with layers of back-ups in place (various power sources, food and cooking options, water purifiers, heaters for winter). But the
bug-out plan? We’ve not worked through any bug-out scenarios, we don’t know where we’d go, and so we don’t have any preps stashed anywhere.
As for the steps to move us toward filling in those gaps, we are discussing options now. Getting out of the house is the first step so we’re talking about all the details of what to take, where to put the things we’d take, how to move quickly and efficiently under pressure, etc. Ideally, we’d love to have some land way outside the city. That’s a long-term goal. I also keep thinking about a mid-sized travel trailer as a bug-out worthy addition that would allow us storage space and the ability to move around.
9.) What area of preparedness knowledge do you feel is your strong suit and why?
Karen:
The area of knowledge that I feel is my strong suit is
food storage. Besides just knowing how to purchase food in economical ways, and have short-term and long-term food storage, I spent years learning how to cook just about everything from scratch – things that most people haven’t even considered like
mayonnaise,
mustard, noodles,
yogurt, bagels, Kombucha, sour dough, tortillas, bread, fermented veggies, cottage cheese, cream cheese, sour cream, soft cheeses, pizza crust, tomato sauce (not it’s not just tomatoes that you cook), pizza crusts, and so many more things. I’m itching to learn how to make hard cheeses.
TexasGirl:
My strongest area so far has been the ability to plan, purchase, and organize a year’s worth of long-term food in just over a year. I only purchased one small box of freeze-dried food as a last-ditch option. Everything else has been planned based on our food preferences (food we’ll really eat!), plus water supplies, medical supplies, etc. This year, I have learned that a prepper’s skill set is the most important prep, and in this era of ready-made everything, I can totally agree we need to learn how to do more of the basics that we take for granted. I am building a supply of skills books and learing new skills in
gardening, food preservation (canning), water purification/collection,
medical, and more.
10. How has your faith influenced your preparedness? 
Karen:
So, I may have it backward, but I’ve prepared because that’s the way that God created me to think. I’ve always been a planner. I’ve always wanted to be five steps ahead, to know where I’m going and how I’m going to get there.
But once I got into preparedness and compared preparedness principles to God’s Word, I realized that the preparedness lifestyle is very much supported by scripture. Noah was told by God about a flood and he obeyed by preparing for it.
Proverbs 22:3 says, “A prudent man foresees evil and hides himself, but the simple pass on and are punished.” Preparedness is seeing evil (or hardship, or tumult, or difficulties) and turning aside. The way I turn aside from it (if I can’t stop it) is to prepare for it.
I’ve also always understood that it was my job to care for my family. In Proverbs 31:14, we are told that “She is like merchant ships, She brings her food from afar.” The Proverbs 31 woman knows how to feed her family, and if she’s able to bring her food from far away, she’s planning and preparing for a long time in advance.
Even in the New Testament, in Matthew 25, we’re given the example of the 10 wise virgins and the 10 foolish virgins. The ten wise virgins took extra oil in their lamps, so in case the bridegroom didn’t come in the expected time, they would have extra lamp to last the night. And while that isn’t the main lesson that parable teaches, it is a lesson that we can learn from it.
And lastly, being prepared for an emergency is very much loving my neighbor. At the beginning of the pandemic, I heard people grumbling about preppers because they were ‘hoarding’ toilet paper. No, my friend, I was the one NOT in the store taking the precious toilet paper because I already had it!
Being prepared allows me to help others around me too. When someone from my church made a need known during the pandemic, we were there with supplies to help them. And while I wouldn’t give my hard stored items out to just anyone for any reason, it means that there are some people that I will be able to not only help with temporal things, but to share the gospel with them.
TexasGirl:
As I was just starting to learn and gather, a friend told me, “I just think God will take care of us and provide what we need.” I was stumped for a moment as I looked at her sparsely filled, Magnolia-decorated pantry shelves. It was then I realized pretty pantries don’t fill tummies.
I, too, believe God will take care of us and provide what we need, but I also don’t consider it God-honoring to need to rush to a store when a winter storm is looming, elbowing my way through panic-driven crowds, and hoping for the best with what’s left on the shelves.
Instead of seeing preparedness as a detraction from my faith in God, it has made me realize quite the opposite: Building a bug-in plan and thinking through various crisis scenarios has made me realize just how “in control” we are not! It has made me rely more on God in these very tumultuous times and to trust that the Lord will guide and guard us, come what may. I cannot control the times we are in, but this I can do — gather food, clothing, blankets, medicine, water, and power — and then I’m equipped to make wiser, calmer decisions in crisis.
My husband reminded me recently that God directed Joseph to lead Egypt to store grain during seven years of abundant harvests to carry them through the next seven years of famine. (Genesis 41) Joseph was a prepper!
Finally, I intentionally remind myself to not put my faith in what I have on my shelves or in my five-gallon buckets. It could all disappear instantly in a tornado or a fire. (Floods are unlikely in our area.) My security is not wrapped up in those goods. My security lies in the Lord more than ever before.
11.) What’s your favorite preparedness item that you’ve purchased so far?
Karen:
My favorite preparedness item that I’ve purchased so far is
our farm. The problem isn’t how fun it is, it’s how much work it takes to tame it. And it does take time to tame it! It takes about 20 man hours to mow our property each week. The gardening takes hours upon hours each week. We only harvested maybe ten percent of our apples this year. We still want to tackle having animals.
Texas Girl:
Besides
Mylar bags and oxygen absorbers, which aren’t the most exciting prep items (but they are empowering!), my favorite item is a food inventory app called PantryCheck. While there are others out there (and some people simply use Excel), I came across PantryCheck as I started my journey. It has a barcode scanner to scan items in or out of our food inventory, creates shopping lists, reminds me of expiration dates, gives me a weekly summary of what entered and what left the pantry, and items can be coded with the location of where they are stored. Sometimes, I scroll through the categories and find myself smiling at the numbers — we’re going to be eating a lot of chili!
What About You?
We’d love for YOU to add to the discussion by commenting below! One of the best things about the preparedness community is that we come together to share ideas, tips, reviews, recommendations, and helpful advice. Take any of the questions above and share your answers with Karen and TexasGirl. They look forward to reading every one!
Related
I just read Part 1 and Part 2. Really enjoyed it. Thanks.
I’m also from Texas and also had a friend tell me they thought God would provide what they needed. I reminded them of the same biblical references you both have made. I always try to be mindful of the gentle nudge that we sometimes get to do certain things. If we are not listening to that voice then I’m afraid we are only listening to ourselves.