Prepography
The Art & Study of Self-Reliance
Top 10 Preparedness Uses of WD-40 (2,101)
Snake Eater – How to Field Dress a Snake (658)
Prepping with Garage Sales (646)
OCOKA – A Key Survival Acronym (636)
Fan of the Ammo Can – Top 10 Uses (611)
Top 10 Preparedness Uses of Mineral Oil (571)
Top 10 Initial Steps to Preparation (533)
Don’t Be ‘That Prepper Guy’ (456)
Prepper SALUTE Report – An Observation and Reporting Tool (360)
Physical Security and the Forms of Protection (302)
Situational Awareness – An Introduction (275)
Top 10 Preparedness Uses of Diatomaceous Earth (257)
Jay, just Jay...
Do One Thing For Preparedness
Between work, family, church, more work, and life in general, it can be hard to prepare for hard times. Both the desire to be prepared and the (ever increasing) need to be prepared is certainly there, but the pressures of life can make it too easy to “do it tomorrow” or put your prepping strategy on the back-burner. I’m going to tell you how you can do one thing for preparedness and you will soon be well on your way to preparedness and being more self reliant.
A common mistake of many starting preppers is to try to be 100% preparedness right NOW! It’s not possible.. so relax and start simply. When people do a serious assessment of their personal and family readiness, it is easy to become frightened and want to feel safe without any delay.
Prepography is a discipline – a marathon, not a sprint!
Yes, given enough money, you can buy a range of supplies and other goods that will make you feel comfortable or take a bunch of classes to acquire the skills you feel you lack. Given enough time and money, I could be Batman. The key is to make your personal preparedness part of your life – a discipline that seems as natural as walking (which you should be doing as well).
Do One Thing for Preparedness Today
So, i
nstead of going on a mad-dash to stock up for the end of the world, may I suggest doing one thing. Just one little thing. Do this one thing for a week until it’s just part of normal activity. Once it becomes normal, pick another thing that can become part of your normal activities. Each little step you take to develop your personal and family readiness builds on itself. You will be growing your preparedness.
Here are a few things that you can do TODAY: Continue reading
Food with a Face (home delivery edition)
Andrew’s Note: Today we present another article by guest writer, Jay (Just Jay). Jay is a combat veteran, a knowledge manager by day and serial inventor by night. He’s had a number of interesting jobs through the years including collecting war trophies (like armored personnel carriers) in Iraq and a stint as a confidence course manager at a facility that used physical activity to build confidence in welfare recipients… to encourage them to work their way out of poverty. Yeah, that worked. Jay brings a sense of humor to everything he does including this discussion food security and hunting. Enjoy.
Greetings and good day, Prepographians! I come to you today with a video (ooh, shiny!) and a mindset check – particularly for your family.
One of the primary issues in your self-reliance efforts is food security. The problem is that your closet full of Spam® will only last until it doesn’t. After you run short, or the situation requires additional food supply, you will have to acquire more food. This very likely will including hunting.
No, Mom! Don’t kill Bambi!
One of the problems, if things go badly, is that a large majority of the population has had the luxury of their meat appearing magically in Styrofoam trays. Forget the issue of actually hunting for food – many have intentionally distanced themselves from the knowledge that their primary nutrient sources at one time had a face. Compounding this is a never-ending stream of cartoons in which animals very often wear waistcoats and have heartfelt back-stories. I bring this up only to remind all of us that in difficult times, you will have to provide sustenance for your family. The distancing of our culture from its food sources will make it difficult to utilize all available protein providers.
To counter this, start early! Take your kids hunting. Teach them that, while beautiful (and even ugly) animals should not be abused, they are in fact all on the menu.
For your consideration, I present this video. As you watch, consider these points:
- How do they react to a large animal (potentially dangerous if frightened) in their shelter?
- Do they view the animal as a friend/pet or as a resource/threat?
- If there any mention of a dinner bell?
Enjoy!
A Nice Hot Cup of Survivability
Andrew’s Note: Today we present another article by guest writer, Jay (Just Jay). Jay is a combat veteran, a knowledge manager by day and serial inventor by night. He’s had a number of interesting jobs through the years including collecting war trophies (like armored personnel carriers) in Iraq and a stint as a confidence course manager at a facility that used physical activity to build confidence in welfare recipients… to encourage them to work their way out of poverty. Yeah, that worked. Jay brings a sense of humor and a mug of coffee to everything he does including a discussion of the collapse of civilization and building a survival network. Enjoy.
Sometimes, as we develop and refine our preparedness plans, we can fall into the trap of isolationism and paranoia. While I’m a big fan of getting away from ‘them all’ (Paranoia=situational awareness), eschewing connections to others can be detrimental to your long-term survival. No, I’m not talking about using social media. I’m talking about the drinking habits of the Cahokia civilization about 900 years ago. Continue reading
200 Guinea Pigs on my Lawn
Andrew’s Note: Today we present an article by guest writer, Jay (Just Jay). Jay is a combat veteran, a knowledge manager by day and serial inventor by night. He’s had a number of interesting jobs through the years including collecting war trophies (like armored personnel carriers) in Iraq and a stint as a confidence course manager at a facility that used physical activity to build confidence in welfare recipients… to encourage them to work their way out of poverty. Yeah, that worked. Enjoy.
An amusing article was posted recently over at Movoto Blog [link] discussing the merits of various animals as lawn mowers. Once you get past the (really cool) calculator to determine how many of the animal of choice you’d need to tend your yard, there’s actually some interesting insights that could help not only your landscaping, but aid your self-reliance efforts and potential survivability.
According to the calculator, I would have to release an army of more than 200 guinea pigs to maintain my yard. Not sure what Homeland Security alarms will be sounded by ordering 200 guinea pigs from my local pet store, but might be worth it for the comic value alone.
The article gives a fun description of the merits of cows, goats, sheep, chickens, and yes, guinea pigs. It further describes the pros and cons of each. While livestock may not be a solution in all cases, it might be worth considering in the self-reliance quest beyond mere landscaping. Continue reading
