The Unglorified Side of Prepping
Kevin Felts 04.26.17
In a previous article we talked about the Unglorified Side Of Farm Life. Let’s expand on that and talk about the unglorified side of prepping. To me, prepping is a way of life. There is no yo-yo prepping, which means get into prepping when something happens, then slowly lose interest.
When someone hears the word “prepper” or “survivalist,” what may come to mind is someone sitting in a bomb shelter cleaning their AK-47. This is simply not true, well, for the most part anyway
As a survivalist, I live my life just like everyone else. I accept the fact that it is just a matter of time before we have a nuclear war or some kind of new disease comes along.
Mundane Task
Along with stockpiling food comes the task of canned food rotation. To avoid having to spend time rotating my canned foods, I am cleaning them out and going with food in mylar bags and freeze dried.
- Cleaning out the chicken house.
- Buying new garden seeds in the spring. Watching for when seeds go on sale in the summer.
- Staying up to date on global events.
- Buying ammunition from time to time.
- Reading up on new technology, such as water filters.
- Trying new emergency radios.
- Cutting and splitting firewood.
- Clearing brush here on the farm.
- Checking the trail cameras for predators.
The list goes on, and on, and on.
Unglorified Side
Prepping is not staying at the gun range all weekend. As much as so called preppers try to glorify firearms, they are a small portion of a well rounded prepping plan.
Awhile back, I posted a thread on the forum asking who will be your best friend after SHTF? Will it be your firearm, or will it be your garden rake? Not a lot of people want to talk about the boring side of prepping, which is gardening, hiking, and testing your gear. Given the choice of going to a gun range or picking peas, chances are most men will go to the gun range.
In an age of instant gratification, taking care of plants for months is boring. How did granny have the patience to grow a garden and then store the food in jars? Maybe because she had to so the the family could eat?
In all honesty, who brags to their prepping buddies how they picked snap beans, gathered eggs, or split firewood? Those unglorified activities do not have the “wow” factor like buying a new light for the Glock does.
Observation
As I go about my daily life here on the farm, I make mental notes on things that I need.
A few months ago, I was working on my truck and needed a certain size socket. I was set-back that I did not have the socket, so down to the store I went and bought one.
The gear box on the brush hog has a slow leak, so I keep gear lube on hand.
I always have a couple of bottles of chainsaw oil in stock.
The tractor stayed fueled up at all times.
Final Thoughts
There are a lot of parts of prepping that are downright boring, such as cleaning out the chicken house. Honestly, who gets a kick of of shoveling chicken manure?
Then there is stuff like clearing brush for a new fence line or taking up old fence then piling the old fence on a trailer and taking it to a metal recycler. All boring and mundane tasks that have to be done.
Those unglorified preps add up over time. A little here, a little there, and after awhile you see the big picture.
