Doom and Gloom…

…it’s coming to a station near you.

I’m not one for doom and gloom, though anyone starting a sentence with “I’m not one for doom and gloom…” probably has a bit of it on the brain. I don’t have a TV therefore I get very little in the way of news and such. A good thing as far as I’m concerned, who needs it! It’s generally full of D&G, dozens or more channels telling us how we evil humans are destroying the planet, global warming, bovine flatulence and such, while bombarding us with commercials and infomercials on the latest fashions, diet adverts and penile enhancements…

We do have a radio, but we only get one station, it’s a public radio station, NPR, it’s interesting to listen to, they have a huge range of music, every kind of music you can imagine, and some you can’t imagine. They also play a lot of news and op-ed stuff. We listen with the knowledge that most of it is going to be left leaning, liberal and generally not what we would agree is correct (for us). Yes, we are right leaning, conservatives, I am more a libertarian than Bob?

Yesterday I heard a story on NPR about the economy, (link) they were discussing how Americans might be making contingency plans, how to survive a worst case scenario. One lady on the program made this statement:

The statements made by other people in the piece weren’t much better… here is the problem, I assume that Lara (and many other people living in cities, or even in rural areas) has never been on a farm, or at least has never worked on a farm. No, visiting Knotts Berry Farm does not count. First of all, during a “Great Depression”, does Lara think she and her friends are going to just show up on a farm and expect to be welcomed, I think during a major depression like the Great Depression, Lara and her friends might be looked upon as another mouth to feed and would probably be greeted by the farm owners in a hostile manner. Or does she think she and her friends are going to be able to buy a farm? I hope Lara and her friends thought ahead and purchased gold and silver as forms of currency, because I believe that in this worst case scenario, debit and credit cards aren’t going to get you very far.

Assuming she and her friends DO find a farm where they can live and work, does she or her friends know the first thing about farming? Can they find or buy seeds or plants in order to plant enough crops to feed themselves? How will they survive until the crops begin to feed them? I hope they were able to bring along lots of canned goods and dry goods to last them until their crops come in.

What about these alleged farm animals? Where will these animals come from? The farm animal fairy? Assuming they can get a few cows, goats, pigs, chickens… does Lara or her friends know anything about animal husbandry? How will they feed and care for these animals? Assuming they get this far, which one will take the task of slaughtering (aka killing) and butchering these animals? I suppose this is when they will consider becoming vegetarians, hope they planted enough crops to do this.

Do any of them know how to preserve all of this abundant food they think they will have? Canning, smoking, drying… so many of these are skills have been all but lost to the last couple of generations.

Assuming they survive this long and have a successful farm, how will they protect what they have worked so hard to achieve? There may be marauding hoards or gangs of people who are hungry and will try to take/steal Lara and her friends’ food to feed themselves and their families. So, does Lara and her friends share their bounty and risk starvation, or do they do what is necessary to protect their hard earned food? Hmmm, didn’t think that far ahead did they?

Yes, this is a very scary D&G scenario, and unfortunately one that most people don’t think about too clearly, too many people are like Lara and think that in a worst case scenario, they will just up and leave their city or suburban lives, somehow get a farm and viola, things will be peachy. All of this with no preparations, no previously purchased land, no knowledge, no experience. This doesn’t even take into consideration where they will get power, electricity, fuel to run the machines they will need, water for drinking and cleaning…

Hello people, hello Lara, NOW is the time to be prepping, now is the time to be learning those all but forgotten skills such as gardening, preserving food (plant and meat), canning, drying, smoking… Now is the time to be purchasing a plot of land somewhere away from the big cities. Now is the time to learn how to hunt, scavenge, build a fire, build a shelter, now is the time to learn how to raise farm animals, cows, goats, chickens, pigs. Now is the time to learn how to slaughter and butcher the meat you will want and need… Now is the time to be learning how to sew, how to repair things, you will not be going to the local WalMart to purchase replacements for anything. I guarantee that if and when TSHTF, those who are not ready will be looking around wondering what to do, those of us who are ready will be sitting in our cabins, camps, properties with our knowledge of how to survive, fending off those who didn’t prepare.

This isn’t a “normal” post for me, I tend to be one that sits in the background, quietly prepping to live the rest of my life whether or not TSHTF. But hearing that NPR story and listening to what Lara and the other’s had to say, that just really hit me wrong, I wanted to scream at the radio, scream at all of those people that in the event of another “Great Depression”, it will be very much too late to try to do all of these things. At best you might end up homeless and be standing in soup lines, if there are soup lines to be found.

Please, while there is still time, seek out those who actually lived through the Great Depression, there are still a few around, talk to them about what things were like, find out what they did to survive, ask how they made it through. Go to the library, use the internet, do some research, Google “survival” and “off-grid”, learn what you can and start DOING SOMETHING now. Don’t wait thinking you have all the time in the world. Learn some first aid, stock some first aid supplies. If you find yourself falling in with a group of people who want to band together to survive, do you want to be known as the extra mouth to feed, or do you want to be the person who knows how to do things? Especially things that other people do not know how to do. In a survival situation, who do you think is going to be the first people tossed out on their heads? Surely not the ones with survival skills and knowledge.

I pray that we (collectively) never have to rely on all the preps we have made, I hope things go peacefully and successfully into the future. I hope for the best, but plan for the worst, how about you? What are you doing to ensure your future survival?

Big disclaimer here, I don’t know anything about Lara except what I heard her say on the radio, that being said, I seriously doubt that Lara knows much about the Great Depression, unless she is a student of history or has a major interest in it… Everything I stated about Lara and her friends are my opinions and assumptions, I could be entirely wrong about everyone involved, though I seriously doubt it. I will assume however, there are more people who think like Lara than think like I do, they will wait until bad things happen to try to do something about it. I sincerely hope that Lara listened to that show and thought about what she said. I hope that she decides to do something now instead of waiting for another Great Depression.

I dislike negative sounding, D&G messages, so on the positive side, take the initiative while you still can, learn some new skills, canning, sewing, small engine repair, learn how to cook from scratch… if nothing else, these are handy skills to have, it can save you lots of money now, and can be a lot of fun. You can use these skills to barter with those who do not have these skills. It may even save your life.