Preparedness

Note:  This article is part of a series on personal preparation to help you answer the question, “What should I do?”  Our goal is to provide a safe, rational, relatively comfortable experience for those who are just coming to the realization that it would be prudent to take precautionary steps against an uncertain future.  Those who have already taken these basic steps (and more) are invited to help us improve what is offered here by contributing comments, as this content is meant to be dynamic and improve over time.

The Future of Your Health

Like our “just in time” food system, our modern medical infrastructure is highly complex; it functions well only under controlled circumstances and with abundantly available specific resources.  As with food, the ease with which we’ve accessed medical services over recent decades has invited us to reduce our health self-sufficiency.  We’ve become so sheltered from the health risks our forefathers faced that we’re especially vulnerable if we’re ever forced to live without easy access to professional care.

Taking on a bit more responsibility and a few more preventive steps in one’s personal health is crucial; a must-do in the process of becoming resilient.  Some of the steps recommended for beginners are universal; others depend on your personal needs.  But in all cases, a good dose of foresight and practicality is in order to build some security into the future of your health.  You should plan ahead for the things you know you’ll need: are there medications you take regularly?  Do you wear contact lenses or glasses?  What supplements, hygiene products, or nutritional supplies would you be hard-pressed to live without?

Note:  This article is part of a series on personal preparation to help you answer the question, "What should I do?"  Our goal is to provide a safe, rational, relatively comfortable experience for those who are just coming to the realization that it would be prudent to take precautionary steps against an uncertain future.  Those who have already taken these basic steps (and more) are invited to help us improve what is offered here by contributing comments, as this content is meant to be dynamic and improve over time.

Increasing Your Local Food Sources

For us, the next step after getting some food stored away was to increase our local sources of food.  Our primary local sources include the farmers who produce our meat and raw milk and the community-supported agriculture (CSA) vegetable operation to which we belong.  Our local demand translates into more local food—a worthy outcome by itself, but we also happen to get superior food as part of the bargain.

And there's more.  Our CSA is run by two fabulous young farmers whom we adore, it employs a crew of young local people, and they grow everything organically.  We are getting tastier and healthier food, increasing demand for local food, and supporting our local community, all in one fell swoop.  If you do not yet belong to a CSA and have the opportunity, it is well worth pursuing.  And if a CSA is not available or affordable to you, then at the very least, make connections with local farmers and food producers and purchase food from them directly whenever possible.

Note:  This article is part of a series on personal preparation to help you answer the question, "What should I do?"  Our goal is to provide a safe, rational, relatively comfortable experience for those who are just coming to the realization that it would be prudent to take precautionary steps against an uncertain future.  Those who have already taken these basic steps (and more) are invited to help us improve what is offered here by contributing comments, as this content is meant to be dynamic and improve over time.

Storing Food

Everyone should have a minimum of three months' worth of food stored.  It's cheap; it's easy; it's a no-brainer.

Three good reasons for storing food are:

1. Because it's cheap
2. Because it's prudent
3. Because your great-grandparents would yell at you for not doing it

Once upon a time, there was a person in every community whose job it was to ensure that sufficient food stocks existed in their town to carry the people through the winter.  Their job was to travel to all the farms and granaries, total up all the food, divide by the number of people in town, and assess whether the community would be able to make it through the winter.  In fact, it is only very recently that we have lost this function, and today most people think it rather odd to even wonder about food security.

But for all of human history, and even up until about a hundred years ago in the United States, this was not odd at all.  In fact, the reverse—going into winter without ensuring a local store of food sufficient to feed the community—would have been considered incomprehensible.

Note:  This is part of a series on personal preparation to help you answer the question, "What should I do?"  Awhile back, we polled our most frequent visitors to the site and asked what improvements would be most helpful to our readers.  The strongest response was that we should make it easier for people to start preparing.

So we've decided to do exactly that.  This series on how to build personal resilience into your life is designed for people who are just beginning the process.  Those who have already taken these basic steps (and more) are invited to help us improve what is offered here by contributing comments, as this content is meant to be dynamic and improve over time.  Our goal is to provide a safe, rational, relatively comfortable experience for those who are just coming to the realization that it would be prudent to take precautionary steps against an uncertain future.

The End is Near, Inc.

On Tuesday afternoon (5/4/2010), while I was engaged in my weekly biology class with a group of homeschoolers, the wind suddenly kicked up out of nowhere with a single strong gust.  Looking out the window, all eight of us were struck by what looked like a yellow cloud lifting up over the nearest ridge about a mile away.

It wasn’t a yellow cloud; it was soil, lifted violently from the fields in the valley below, its color highlighted by the dark clouds above.  Suddenly, the tree tops on the ridge to our west all bent over in unison, as if brushed by a giant invisible hand.  There was a pause, and then we got hit with a blast of gritty air, probably in the vicinity of 50 mph, that toppled trees in our yard and turned out the lights.  Boom.  Just like that.  We had about 2 minutes to react and prepare, from start to finish.