Prepping Styles; Military vs. Civilian

There are several different ways of categorizing preparedness styles and methods, but for this post I thought I'd break down the differences between a military-based vs a civilian-based style of prepping. So what do I mean by military-based and civilian-based prepping? In short it's emphasis on several factors I go into below. Also, please keep in mind that military-based does not necessarily mean it will be followed strictly by ex or current members of our great military. There are plenty of preppers out there with little-to-no actual military experience or service but who are like-minded in military methods or enthusiasts in the military ways. There's nothing at all wrong with this, it's just a particular approach to address preparedness.

The Civilian-based Approach

Disasters; What Are You Preparing For?

Typical civilian folks tend to prepare for weather events or limited man-made disasters such as chemical spills or nuclear reactor melt downs. Weather events are somewhat consistent or seasonal, however chemical or nuclear reactor-based events are more regional concerns. This type of approach targets short-term disruptions, anywhere from 24 hours to a few weeks.

Logistical Considerations

Families and location of sheltering tend to be high on the list of priorities for civilian-oriented preppers. Preparing food, water, and medical stores for sheltering in place is the common strategy, and friends, family members, and neighbors are taken into consideration when planning is initiated. 

Security Operations and Communications

There's an openness of communication and sharing of preparedness plans within communities that could be affected by disasters in the typical civilian mentality. The sense of community awareness allows for ensuring other members of the local population are prepared for disasters as well.

The Military-based Approach

Disasters; What Are You Preparing For?

Current and ex-military members as well as preppers with more of a military mind tend to prepare against war-type activities and attacks against our country. EMPs or straight up military invasion, or acts of terrorism, either domestic or foreign, are among the events such military-minded preppers get ready for. The timeframes of disruption for these events tend to last into the years or decades so sustainability or pushing for a 'new normal' after the event is projected.

Logistic Considerations

Military oriented preppers trend more towards the lone-wolf psychology or toward militia-type organizations with other like-minded preppers. There's a sense of BYOA (bring your own ammo) among this approach with members only accepted if they add some tangible value to the group.

Gear, tools, and the idea of bugging out are given more emphasis under the idea of staying mobile and evasive from enemy forces. If a safe location is setup, it's done so with tactical, military advantage in mind.

Security Operations and Communications

Defense and strong communication are emphasized, more so than food and even sometimes water. Weaponry and load-outs are discussed and held most important for the more military minded, and secrecy and obscurification are key elements regarding one's preps or bugout locations.

Which One is Right For You?

Odds are....both. Blending both is not just common but necessary in my strong opinion. I've never been one to limit my options because it's critical to remain flexible and adaptable in any given disaster situation. When your life and the lives of those you care about are on the line there's no room for dogma. Bugging in is typically the most appropriate approach (civilian mentality) however when your home or shelter become unsafe you must be prepared to bug out to a safer location. In short, prepare for generalized disasters and watch the news (fairly and with strong filters) for any local events that could affect you.

Rarely are people truly alone any more. We have families and friends that are likely local, and, at times, we develop good relationships with our neighbors. We neither want these people to perish during a disaster, nor do we want them knocking on our door empty handed looking for handouts. Encouraging those we care about to prepare for disruptions before they strike while not tipping our hand at the same time is a fair balance.

Another blending example? Security operations. It's a personal choice of course, but I'm a proponent of firearms and having them at the ready should the need arise. Even a civilian-minded prepper should have a military-ish plan of protection should disaster strike and you need to defend your home and hearth...and family and pets.

Final Thoughts

Being prepared for a regionally realistic disruptive event is the goal, and the approach taken should factor in a variety of considerations. As such being too 'civilian' or being to 'militarialistic' can lead to severe gaps in your preparedness plan. Good preparedness includes appropriate levels of food, water, and medical supplies, realistic consideration regarding local friends, family, and neighbors, and an appropriate level of martial training to protect and defend against the less-savory people who are interested in your preps. There's no need to go all G.I. Joe cosplay for protection (though there's something to be said about the intimidation factor), and there's no need to starve or get dysentery by not considering bug-in options. Balance and adaptability are key in surviving any disaster.

Peace.

Preparedness and Physical Fitness

 Well, I weighed myself the other day and topped out at just under 200 pounds. For me, that's heavy, very heavy. At my fatest I tipped the scales at 216 lbs. and my ideal weight is between 175 - 185 lbs. depending on muscle density. Needless to say I'm a little concerned, especially with the holiday season and it's accompanying food are fast approaching.

Being in good physical shape is a key element in the prepping lifestyle. This doesn't mean you need to run 5 minute miles or do 30 pull-ups with a 50# pack on your back, but you should be at a good and healthy weight with solid health habits. For a lot of people this is old-hat, but let's outline some of the benefits of a base-line level of health below.

Psychology

It's a proven fact that healthier people are happier people. A positive self image and an overall contentment lead to better moods even when life's other stressors threaten. Confidence and high self esteem abound when a person is over all more fit and healthy than not.

Prepping Affect

Having a positive outlook caused by knowing you're relatively healthy leads to better decisions and stronger confidence levels when preparing for disasters

Mentality

Eating right and exercising increase blood flow to the brain. In short, healthy people can think, reason, and deduce at faster levels. Healthier people are mentally sharper people. Now this doesn't mean healthier people are smarter people, but brain functionality in someone healthier is more responsive and extensive than in people who fail to maintain a healthy diet or exercise levels, and healthy folks inspired to, say, earn another college degree or vocational certification will do so at an easier pace.

Prepping Affect

Healthier preppers think more soundly and can address problems with disasters that threaten them in better ways. Thinking better leads to better, more affective preparedness.

Physiology

Of course this is the main benefit. Being healthier just leads to a better life, such as being able to walk up a flight of stairs or carry more groceries per-trip in from the car to the kitchen.

Prepping Affect

Whether you're bugging out with a 35# pack on, slinging cases of water into your pantry, or running from a hoard of zombies, preppers need to be able to actually do some physical labor, and being more on the fit side really helps.

Some helpful links

• This link includes an at-home shadow boxing workout (scroll down a bit).
• Fifteen minute video workout. Warning if you click this one - moderately annoying trainer ahead, but the workout is still nice and simple and affective.
• Top 25 at-home exercises.

Developing a Fitness Plan

As I recommend with everything else related to prepping, a fitness plan should be incremental and in easily consumed chunks of development. Smooth and steady wins the race, and the biggest mistake humans make when trying to get into shape is doing too much too fast. Start with the mentality that you just want to improve your current fitness level by one notch and go from there. Also, keep in mind that this is a base-line, simple plan. For those preppers already in good shape, this will probably be a little light for you. A nice simple plan should start with...

1. A healthy diet. Reduce snacks, including pop, and red meats, and increase healthier foods like fruits and vegetables. Notice I said reduce. I didn't say eliminate. You can still eat snacks and red meat, just don't eat that whole bag of chips or bacon for every meal. The key is moderation.
2. A fitness routine. We have an Echo Show (Amazon/Alexa device), and one of the cool routines it will show you is a 7-minute workout. It's nice and simple and doesn't need weights or even a lot of room to do. Seven minutes and you're done. Getting up and walking a mile outside is excellent cardio...as long as you do it at a good pace. Just remember, any additional activity inserted into your daily routine will help. Keep the mix varied, a combination of functional weight training and cardio; try to perform your routine the same time every day; take breaks from your routine, such as on weekends; and smoothly increase your routine as the exercises get easier.
3. Workout with others. Go to a gym with a friend, or better yet get your whole MAG (mutual assistance group) involved. Doing so allows you to encourage each other and be there for each other if someone starts to slip back into old, bad habits.
4. That which is measured is improved. Track your progress. ...but don't get discouraged. Measure your weight and how well you do with your routine each time you work out, but if you miss a day or miss a goal do not quit. I had a goal of being able to run a mile in under 8 minutes when I turned 50. I failed to do that, but I realize that's okay. I'm still in better shape than a lot of other 50 year olds and I'm going to keep that up. Blank days in your log or tracking software are more hiccups than failures. The important lesson there is that you do your routine the next day after the one you missed.

 

5.  Keep it up. It takes 3 months of performing an activity for it to become familiar, 6 months for it to become habit and a year for it to become part of your natural lifestyle. Another word on this topic - living healthy and exercising becomes easier over time so again, don't get discouraged.

Final Thoughts

A good fitness plan and healthy diet should be part of any preparedness plan, but they should also be realistic and achievable by the individual prepper. Having at least a base-line level of fitness is critical to being able to prepare for disasters and life-altering events. Be healthy, be safe, be happy.

Peace.

Morale Boosters

Good, positive psychology becomes critical during a disruptive or grid down event. People deal with disruption based on their own experiences, expectations, and even current mood. Fear and panic can occur even in the most hardened soldier when things go sideways quickly. Maintaining morale and keeping a positive attitude throughout a long-term event can become critical, even life-saving, very quickly. Below are some items and methods to keep you and your loved ones thinking positive during a disaster.

Food

An empty stomach can lead to being hangry (which is a real thing), cause serious lapses in judgement and reasoning, and in the later stages of advanced hunger, cause small-muscle trembling and loss of coordination needed for precise physical activities. A steaming cup of coffee or hot chocolate; a warm delicious meal; a glass of a good bourbon ... all of these things can dramatically improve mode and outlook during a disruptive event. Food = nutrition which can restore focus and increase positive decision making, but the food has to be edible and, to an extend, enjoyable. 

A lone-prepper waiting out a power outage may be fully content gagging down MREs and reminiscing about his or her military days, but an 8 year old in the same situation would likely refuse such a meal (and I wouldn't blame them.) The primary thing to consider when stocking up on food for your preparations is just that; how good and tasty is the food you're storing? It has to be something your family or group wants to eat.

Of course nutritional value is another huge factor to consider when storing your food preps. Cases of popcorn as a primary meal is not going to provide the energy needed to perform physical tasks, though a few bags of popcorn to serve as a treat would be helpful. As cliché as it sounds your food stores need to be delicious and nutritious. 

Music

Good tunage can make or break a situation. Just ask Beatles fans who went and saw Yoko Ono in concert. A weather radio should already be on your list of preps, and one that gets AM/FM frequencies can help provide mood-lightening music. If you have the power (stored batteries, generator w/ charging cord, etc...) an MP3 player and decent speaker can allow you to customize your play list and avoid counter productive commercials from the radio and allow your weather radio to remain tuned to the emergency channel while you listen to music. 

Kill me now.

The selection of music should be carefully considered. Our ex-military prepper may enjoy a little hate-thrasher melodies, but our 8 year old may not. Then again, a playlist with nothing but Barney and Kidz Bop may prove so annoying to older adults they may wish the disaster would have taken their lives so they could have some peace. Streaming services like Spotify and Pandora allow you to not just customize multiple playlists, but download them onto your device so they can be played offline. The downside to those options is there is a monthly subscription fee.

Video Games/Electronics

Again, this one's dependent on power options, but if you can swing it hooking up a console or playing games on a charged phone can provide a distraction for a few minutes. Due to the power restriction, time playing such games should be very limited. Still "kids these days" are highly dependent on electronics for continuous and random engagement. Admittedly a teenager, or even a young adult, denied access to electronics may quickly become demoralized and depressed. Allowing small periods of electronic engagement may boast their spirits for a time. 

Books or Games

This is one for us older folks; engaging books and literature can provide hours of distraction and boast morale by taking our minds off of things. Non-electronic games such as board and card games can also be good distractions until the event is over.

Conversation and Humor

Sometimes conversation amongst humans can be enlightening and engaging and help pass the time. However, sometimes not so much. Caution must be taken to keep the conversation up-beat and positive. Conversations among people with different political or religious bents should most-likely be avoided as they can lead to the extreme opposite of a higher morale....such as beating the crap out of one another.

Humor's an excellent way of keeping attitudes high and happy as well. Again it's angled toward individual tastes and audience appropriateness, but having funny cable programs or stand up comedian performances on bluray or flash drives to be placed on a computer can seriously boast outlook of an otherwise dire or boring situation.

Final Thoughts

Regardless of experience, the unexpected, such as a disaster event, can have devastating effects on morale of an individual or entire group. Anticipating this emotional-hit and compensating for it in your preparedness plan can help assuage issues called by low morale before they even start to take root.

I have an 18 year old son who's been my prepping buddy for years. One day, when he was 16, we were sitting around the house going through our bug-out bags and he was showing me all the progress he'd made. I asked him, "What about a morale booster? Have anything for that?" I fully expected the question to trip him up, but instead he looked me straight in the eye and replied, "Oh yeah, I got that covered." He promptly pulled out a picture of him and I and said with a knowing smile, "I keep this handy at all times." I gotta say, it choked me up a bit and filled me with pride, believing in his darkest moments he would pull out that picture and be strengthened emotionally and mentally.

Me with my youngest son and prepping buddy.

Peace.

What “type” of prepper are you?

The act of being prepared for a disruptive event spreads across all social-economical levels regardless of political or religious affiliations, gender or sexual preferences, wealth, or philosophical bent. It stands to reason to take a step back and analyze what type of prepper you are based on the strategy you employ and the resources you can put into preparedness. I strongly believe that by analyzing your individual preference and strategy regarding prepping you can tweak and adjust your progress in preparedness on a yearly, monthly, even daily basis. 

Psychology and Philosophy

I've already posted an article discussing the anxiety-driven inspiration of prepping and, though that's not a 100% negative reason to prepare for a disruptive event most of us are driven by other factors in addition to anxiety. I invite the reader to take a step back and list the reasons, beyond "I don't want to die", as to why you prepare for an event. 

Many preppers prepare out of a sense of obligation toward their friends and family, for instance. They feel the need to play the sheep-dog and ensure the safety and well-being not only for themselves, but those they love. I've also chatted with preppers who prepare because they believe doing so empowers them as an 'alpha member' of society, providing an advantage over other citizens who fail to prepare for such inevitable disruptive events.

Religious drive can be dropped into this category as well. Several Christian denominations and sects take the words found in the book of Revelation to heart, heeding the interpretation as God commanding them to prepare for the coming end of days. I'd heard a few years back that the Church of Latter Day Saints (commonly referred to as Mormons) required their members to have a 2-year supply of food, water, and medical supplies, though since then I've heard-tell that's been reduced to just a 6 month supply by church direction. 

Resources and Strategy

Those of us 'into' preparedness all have a strategy; a method that best suits our philosophy and ideals to give us what we believe to be the best advantage during a disruption. Below are examples of this ideal.

The Homesteader

This individual typically scorns material wealth and instead chooses to live 100% off-grid, growing their own food, powering their home with wind and solar energies, and learning to scavenge resources such as old cars or 'junk' others discard and turning these items into highly useful objects. Homesteaders learn to live off the land in a far more dependent fashion, seeing modern materialism as being fragile and easily broken. As a result they limit their dependence on modern goods and services, or eliminate them from their lives altogether. 

Homesteaders tend to prep for disruptive events such as social or economical collapse, an EMP event, or even an asteroid strike or super volcano eruption. The homesteader sets themselves up for when there's no longer a grid to connect to and when society must revert back to dependency and living off of the land.

Generally speaking the homesteading strategy is a poor-man's choice (this is not a bad thing). With only a little startup revenue a prepper can dip their toes into homesteading with a little land and a lot of know-how. It's the know-how that's critical to a homestead prepper, far more-so than money which would be rendered useless in a SHTF event by their take. It's also this know-how and knowledge of homesteading that many peppers new to the strategy seriously underestimate, and they pay for it, too. City folks moving out to the rural environment without knowledge of living off the land or sheltering themselves properly find themselves in a world of hurt long before the disruption they're preparing for actually occurs.

The Urbanite (and Suburbanite)

It's seriously underestimated the number of people who want or need to prepare for a disruption who also live in, or on the outskirts of, a major city. Most seasoned preppers will tell you in a serious grid-down situation, cities become death traps with hoards of looters running the streets, resources slim, and martial law restricting every element of life. However, for countless Americans living in a city is inevitable or unavoidable. For these citizens the strategy becomes one of mitigation and incremental improvements for if/when a disruption occurs. Cleverness becomes key. Strategies on storing food and water in limited locations, acquiring firearms and other forms of self defense, and plans to escape the city limits (or draw farther away from them), all factor in to the preparedness method for urbanites. Obscurity and heightened self awareness also become critical in this strategy.

Urbanites really need to prep for anything and everything since the city will attract or be prone to it all. Social and financial events will hit the cities hard. Earthquakes and hurricanes in certain parts of the country are very real threats, and EMP/CME events will hit cities and urbanites within them the hardest. It's no wonder "avoid cities at all costs" is parroted among preppers all the time. Urbanites must account for all levels of disasters in their strategies and have a multifaceted approach to bugging in and bugging out scenarios. 

Wealth and material resources become more crucial for the urbanite as cities, themselves, tend to be financial centers of trade and commerce. Having the financial means to live in a sufficiently large apartment, for instance, or being able to afford a storage container near-by their home will leverage an urbanites position in accumulating and storing preps. Being able to upgrade from a 2 bedroom to a 3 bedroom will grant just that much more storage space...at a cost. Transportation costs also tend to be very high in and around cities (most New Yorkers rely only on public transportation because of this), so even getting around or bugging out can prove financially challenging as well. All that said, Urbanite preppers don't need to be mega wealthy. As usual, preparedness is a long-term, even permanently on-going goal, and urbanites critically need to push towards this goal within the limits of their budgets.

The Wealthy

And then there are the wealthy. Having solid financial footing to the point you have the income to toss into prepping without care is a dream most preppers share. If you have the money, any strategy can be implemented and that strategy typically includes insulating the wealth itself. Practices such as diversifying investments, buying gold and silver, and storing wealth resources in creative locations (literally burying cash in the back yard) all become part of the plan, all in addition to using a percentage of that wealth to prepare for whatever disaster keeps the person up at night.

Bunkers, extensive bug-out vehicles, 3-month supplies of freeze-dried food, and enough firearms to supply a 3rd-world country are all within the realm of possibility for people with the cash. The age-old idea of "just toss money at it" becomes the go-to answer to disruptive potentials. Wealth preppers are often criticized, however, as the toys and gadgets they buy to prepare for disruption can often break or wear out. Trucks can break down or be destroyed, ammo spent, fancy clothes tear, and so on.

Being a wealthy prepper is the stuff of fantasy. Even if you're preparing for an economic collapse (and the loss of most of your wealth), buying a crap ton of preps now, storing them all away safely, and diversifying the remainder is a decent strategy.

Final Thoughts 

Of course these are just broad-scope categories and many people into preparedness bridge across one or more of them. Then there are the casual preppers who center their preps around simple disruptions like short term weather events or the like, and who may not go to such extremes as any of these three categories. In my humble opinion the homesteader takes the award as the Most Sustainable strategy. The Wealthy is the most fun-if-fantasy strategy. Lets face it; most of us are simply not going to win the lottery or inherit the millions of dollars to set us apart in this fashion. Then there's the urbanites, and suffice it to say I'd wager that most preppers fall somewhere along this particular strategic spectrum...not quite homesteading, and not super-comfortably wealthy. These preppers are forced to balance a check book each time they make a major supply purchase, but don't necessarily have the land or knowledge to live off-grid 100%. 

Your prepping strategy boils down to your philosophy (why you're prepping) and the resources you have to initiate the best plan based on your philosophy. Money, although the root of all evil, is absolutely required to move forward with a plan. We're not in a barter system quite yet, so a core foundational budget is crucial to success, even if you're planning on homesteading, an urbanite, or if you're a casual prepper. A good prepping plan starts with a philosophy and continues with a solid budget. Build from there.

Peace.

Preparedness Psychology - Anxiety

 I belong to several online preparedness forums and social media groups and one thing in the last four years that vexes me is the break down in mentality and focus that can occur by so-called experienced preppers. The creator and moderator of one of these groups has often expressed dismay and near-panic level confusion at the events that have occurred in the last four and a half years. In that regard I'd like to address the issue of preparedness mentality and how 'preppers' should think and reason when finding themselves in the throes of a disruptive event.

Admittedly, at it's foundation preparedness or "prepping"  is an anxiety-driven practice rooted in the fear that something bad is going to happen and people should be prepared for that 'something' when it does. This is the primary drive for the majority of preppers. Anxiety is the encouraging factor with preparedness being the result. When you plan against and prepare for a disruptive event, the emotional and psychological result is that you should feel a sense of relief and confidence as you work through your plan. Someone who has 3 years of preparedness supplies, for instance, should not continue to feel high levels of anxiety or worry if there's a week-long power outage. If a prepper with that level of supplies still feels such fear 1 of 2 things could be occurring.

1. Overall Lack of Preparedness

Unless you're comfortably wealthy and can devote a massive chunk of money and resources into your initial preparedness plan, it will take you several months or years to achieve a comfortable level of preparedness, overall. During those months or years its' not uncommon for a prepper to experience small anxiety attacks and feelings of "it's taking me too long to get ready." I can attest to this. When 2020 kicked off with a global pandemic I had just moved in with my girlfriend and we had barely started to shore up our preps. Add to that the fact our normal shopping cycle happened to fall right in line with some major grocery shortages so yeah, we were hurting. 

In my opinion this type of anxiety is normal and can really only be mitigated by keeping on, keeping on. Stick to your plan and take heart that your food, water, and medical supplies are coming along in a fair and balanced pace. The only other option is to threaten your financial stability (and financial preparedness) by taking out a loan or swiping funding from other projects to expedite your prep plan. Typically most households cannot afford to take such steps, but again, that's okay. Review your plan, take another inventory of what you do have, indulge in your progress, and realize that all will be well. 

2. Deeper-rooted Anxiety

This reasoning implies a shaken psychological or mental state that goes beyond a simple level of preparedness against a disruptive even. Keep in mind that I am no psychologist myself and have had no formal training outside of a few college courses on the matter. However, as stated above there really is no reason for someone with literally years of preparedness supplies and extensive training in survival skills to be worried and anxious about the general store running out of toilet paper or hoards of the unprepared to be panic buying. I believe that people with a sufficient level of preparedness who still wring their hands and feel panic-level anxiety while watching the news should seek some professional assistance. At the very least people in this state should strive to improve their dealing with anxiety at a mental or psychological level.

Professional counseling, especially during and since 2020, is on the rise and more readily available to any and all who seek it out. So, too in this day and age should the need or even 'want' for counseling be seen as a sign of weakness or shame. Many times in the course of our lives do we need a shoulder to lean on or an ear to listen, and a professional counselor is just someone trained to help in those very times. 

A healthy dose of religion can help as well. Please note that I typed healthy and intentionally did not define a specific religion there. Positive religious pursuits that 'call' to you and your spirituality in a positive and supportive way have been proven to make people happier, increase morale and sense of community, and add to an over-all healthier state, mentally and physically. These pursuits do not have to be Christian, Jewish, or Muslim. They don't even need to be 'spiritual' or even anything more than a positive philosophy shared by a large group of others world-wide. As long as these pursuits are positive and they resonate with you emotionally, mentally, and spiritually you can benefit from lower anxiety.

Additional Suggestions

I asked a friend (who's not at all into prepping) if the year 2020 taught him anything. He avoided the question, but did flip it back on me. On some self-reflection I responded that 2020 taught me that during a sustainable disruption nearly everybody will suffer stress and anxiety throughout the course of the event. The saying, "We're all in this together" certainly applies to global pandemics and regional out-breaks of protests and rioting. Some things that helped me through the darker times include;

1. Take inventory. Sometimes stepping back and reviewing your preparations and realistically seeing how far you've come puts things into perspective and can give you a stronger sense of confidence.
2. Surround yourself with positive people. 2020 was a rough year with a LOT of political division which spread into friend circles and family households, alike. When you can, avoid the negative people in your sphere of influence and, instead, identify the positive people and hang out with them more. Do the same on social media. More than once I've pruned my social media friends lists to rid my feeds of constant negative postings. This has helped me extensively.
3. Surround yourself with positivity in general. Watch a stand-up comedian you enjoy. Indulge in binge-watching a few shows that make you feel good. Target some positive podcasts that make you laugh.
4. Get into a routine. In this day and age of unemployment or working from home, we've broken all of our routines, and some people, psychologically rely on a routine to set their sequence. Bone up on your discipline and start to follow a daily and weekly routine from bed times to work times.
5. Break your routine. We've been in a global pandemic and various stages of lock down for well over a year, now. For some of us not only have we successfully established a routine, but we dogmatically follow it, and this can cause some emotional stress and and general malaise. Take a walk when you don't normally do so. Burn a PTO day and relax on the couch. Do anything to deviate from your daily or weekly routine with something that makes you feel good.
6. Turn off the news, the Internet, and social media. Yep, there's a LOT of negativity out there so, just switch it off. Go outside and find nature again (our lock downs here have never been so bad we couldn't walk the local parks). Read a book. Practice a prepping skill such as knot making....but do anything you can to get away from the electronic depression.
7. Lastly, if you're still not into seeking some professional guidance, do some self reflecting and research your own emotional state. Many additional (valid) resources remain online for doing just this, all coming with their own additional suggestions for reducing stress and anxiety. 

Conclusion

Both counseling and a positive religious practice, in addition to the suggestions above, can bolster mentality by increasing positivity, confidence, and restoring that strong sense of self reliance.

I very much hope this blog post helps someone and gives someone some added strength and guidance. Untold additional (free) help and resources can be found all over the Internet and even beyond that if you need someone to talk to further, I invite you to freely reach out to me and I will help in any way I'm able. We really are in this world, with all it's problems, together. As a fellow member of the prepper community, we must be here for one another.

Peace.

The Anatomy of a Disruption. When the SHTF - Paint-by-Numbers

Introduction

What does it mean when people into preparedness say the "Shit's hit the fan?" or SHTF? In short it means a disruptive event has occurred that has an explicit impact on an affected populace (usually including themselves). For the purposes of this blog post we'll focus on the attributes and characteristics of what a disruptive event means and focus only on said-event. I'll talk immediate and long term effects in subsequent blog posts.

Characteristics

We start at a state of normalcy; going about our daily lives as all is well. We get up, eat breakfast, go to work, come home, kiss our spouse, head to bed and wake up the next morning to do the same thing. Taxes get paid, groceries get bought, vacations are taken. There's birth, death, and everything in between as life rolls on for us human beings. 

And then something happens to disrupt this flow. It can be a small event affecting an individual, such as a cancer diagnosis or loss of employment, or a global event which affects everybody on the planet, such as a meteor strike or a pandemic. Such a disruptive event can be broken down into variables, parameters, or characteristics. By doing so we can, in turn, be better prepared for such an event by defining the disruption and detailing what to expect. We'll set the stage by laying out the following characteristics of an event;

1. Scope; this defines the number of humans affected by the event, from individual to global and everything in between.
2. Area of effect; based on geographical information, what area does the event effect? A tornado, for instance, will not affect an area nearly as broad as a hurricane.
3. Length of Time Occurring; A car wreck occurs within seconds, an earthquake can last for minutes, a volcano can erupt for days, and a pandemic can last for years. This characteristic defines how long the disruptive event actually lasts.
4. Human Casualty Impact; defines the level of adversity at a human casualty level, from minor bumps and bruises to fatalities. A car wreck may only cause those affected some whiplash and bruising, where-as a dirty-bomb explosion would result in many deaths and injuries including radiological and explosive.
5. Environmental Impact; measures the affects of the disruption on the natural environment, including plant and animal life, rivers, streams, etc. This can include wide-spread flooding, the death of game animals in a wide-spread area, or pollution of ground water.

Examples

We can use some examples to put all these characteristics into clearer definition. Let's take a typical family of four; Husband, wife, teenage daughter and school age son and use them as a base-line. Our family lives in a typical suburb on the outskirts of a major city. Things are going well until...

Unemployment

The scope of the event will affect all four members of the family, with the greatest impact, at least psychologically, being the husband or wife who lost the job. The area of effect will, again, be the family, and the length of time occurring (the time it takes for the family member to find a new job with comparable salary and benefits) will be dependent on a host of factors such as marketability and the job market itself. The human casualty impact would be minimal and, likely, limited to a psychological level There's rarely physical injury during job loss. The fear and unknowing of a job loss has a serious rippling affect. Lastly, environmental impact may be nil, here.

Tornado Outbreak

A major tornado outbreak rolls through the region affecting the scope of our little family as well as all of their friends and other family members within a 10 mile radius of them (area of effect). The county is hit by 3 tornados ranging in level from EF1 to EF2 with the last touchdown occurring 15 minutes prior to the first touch-down. In all, the tornados were on the ground for just under 30 minutes. The human casualty impact is a total of 5 deaths (none including our sample family) and 123 injuries (the son was injured crawling over debris trying to find the family cat). Due to the number of localized injuries, the near-by hospital is quickly overwhelmed with emergency room submissions. The immediate environmental impact includes a total of 12 roads blocked or made impassible from debris, localized flash flooding which ends up polluting local water supplies, and damage to a local chemical processing plant that leads to a potential environmental hazard. 

Electromagnetic Pulse Caused by Nuclear Detonation

An enemy of our country has done it; they've detonated a nuclear weapon in the stratosphere which rippled an electromagnetic pulse across the heart of America, effecting our sample family directly. Millions are directly affected by the EMP. Although smaller electronics still function, larger grid-structures are shorted by the pulse, including millions of transformers and cellular communication towers across the U.S. heartland, so many of those smaller electronics have no network to connect to. The EMP occurred at the speed of light as soon as the high-altitude device was detonated. The human casualty impact was minimal with car crashes of late-model vehicles having extreme dependencies on electronic devices being the largest immediate source of casualties. The second largest cause of casualties came within three hours after the detonation as civilians start to realize what has occurred with looting and some panic events occurring at that time. The environmental and safety controls at the local chemical processing plant are also all affected by the pulse and immediately shut down. Within another two hours some of the cooling-reliant storage facilities fail and start slowly leaking toxic fumes and vapor into the local environment, becoming airborne with the heavier vapors coating the soil, coalescing, and seeping into the ground water from there. Evacuation from the city is near-impossible as vehicles that are not as dependent on electronics get stuck behind or around those that are, causing massive traffic jams throughout the local roadways, though refugees likely have no where else to go anyway.

Putting it All Together

Each one of these examples is possible in varying degrees of likelihood, and each example would require it's own level of preparedness to mitigate. Unemployment can be offset by a solid savings account with 6-months or more of funding. A good storm-shelter stocked with medical supplies and a fore-thought escape route are excellent and base-line preparations against tornados. An older vehicle (or motorcycle or bicycle) and a bug out location (again with a well-thought out escape route), along with 6-months of food, water, and medical supplies would be invaluable preparations against an EMP. Of course these lists of preparations are only beginning points and examples, but they highlight the need to define characteristics of disasters in order to prepare for them. 

Regardless of what you're preparing for I invite you to sit down and sketch some of these characteristics out. What would the characteristics of (another?) pandemic look like?  How would they differ from the characteristics of a financial recession or depression should one hit our country? Laying out these characteristics can help define or refine your preparedness plan and level set the degrees of preparedness you will want to shoot for.

Peace.

Politics and Preparedness

Introduction

 So, yeah, when I (re)started this blog I'd made a small commitment to avoid politics and keep the focus on preparedness as a whole, but it cannot be denied that politics can and will effect your need and ability to remain prepared for disruptive events. With that said I thought I'd share a little of my perspective regarding politics and why, as someone into preparedness, you should be aware of them. Also, I'm refusing to take a side regarding the political spectrum, here. This is a broad-scope discussion on the topic and believe the topic to be important regardless of your own personal political sway.

Why Politics, and Awareness of Them, Is Critical

Politics will affect your preparedness plan. There's really no way around it. Whether it's at a local, state, regional, or federal level; rules, laws, regulations, and requirements will dictate your decisions will be numerous. As I type this very post, serious changes to gun control and firearm laws (yes, the biggie topic) are being considered by the current administration. Again, regardless of what your political bent is and depending on the affect of those laws, they may drastically limit your ability to purchase or carry a firearm. This, in turn, could affect your security and security operations plans.

Another example which I addressed on a Twitter feed had to do with local laws limiting or even prohibiting the use of rain collection systems (usually restricted due to drought, fire-threat, or other environmental factors in which rain water is needed by the local landscape). The inability to collect rain water will often force someone to re-think their water solution preparedness.

Steps to Address Politics

Many, many people disagree with laws and restrictions such as what I called out above as well as countless others, but what can you do? Well, you could go against the law to avoid all the restrictions and risk fines or jail time (not recommended). You could mitigate the impact by coming up with alternative plans and options (recommended). And/or you could use your power of the vote and in public citizen forums to make your voice heard, either in favor or against laws and political rulesets (also recommended). 

Regarding that last comment, of course. your voice/vote is heard 'louder' and more effective the closer to home you are.  To that end it's important to remember how much influence you have as far as politics are concerned. You may very much want one candidate to win at a federal level, but you really only do get one, single vote out of, literally, millions. On the other hand your vote for a county commissioner may be important enough to sway the whole election. It's also essential that you maintain a balanced perspective while at the same time remaining closely aware of politicians, their views and values, and potential laws and regulations coming down the pipe.  Lastly, you will want to keep a realistic view on what the majority says, thinks, or feels, at least as much as possible. This is hard to gauge even on the Internet as some groups and peoples tend to be more 'loud-mouthed' than others. There is such a thing as the silent majority out there. 

In the end there's a lot of stress around politics, so keeping a level head and understanding what you can or cannot control are critical in keeping that stress and anxiety at low levels.

Introduction

Greetings to all!

I'm a humble guy interested in general preparedness located in the eastern midwest, hoping to learn a few things about preparing for emergencies in all aspects of life. Welcome to my blog!

The last few years, 2020 especially, have awakened people to at least some form of preparedness. Within the last year and a half we have seen a global pandemic, social disruption due to racial tension, and political division bordering insurrection within our own country. Anywhere from the panic buying of toilet paper to otherwise-peaceful protests turning violent, self awareness and some degree of preparedness have become a resounding need within American society today, regardless of which side of the political spectrum you stand. All Americans, outside of race, creed, gender, political affiliations, or any other sub-group beneath "American" should consider at least a moderate level of preparedness in my strong opinion.

So, what to prepare for? At the (re)writing of this post, 3/24/2021, COVID-19 infection rates are dramatically reducing due to propagation of the vaccine (of which I just received my first dose mere hours ago). The country is in a relatively better place politically, and there are only remnants of effects from the racial tensions which occurred this time last year, and those remnants remain peaceful and legal. However, a review of how quickly things went 'south' at the beginning months of 2020 should be a clear sign that at any time disruption can occur on a local, state, national, or even global level. The question becomes not "is prepping necessary", but how long and for what should I prepare for.

As a side-bar to my interest in preparedness I also enjoy the money saving prospects of the hobby such as the idea of growing my own foods, going off-grid, and conserving natural resources. I'm also into outdoorsmanship, camping, and hiking, bicycling and other forms of outdoor physical fitness....all of which contribute to some element of preparedness.

I've created this blog to share my stories, lessons, and opinions throughout my journey down the road of preparedness and survivalism. I welcome helpful criticisms and encouraging comments as well as engaging conversation on my blog even from differing view points from my own.

Peace.