Introduction to Prepping

In the house of the wise are stores of choice food and oil, but a foolish man devours all he has.

--Proverbs 21:20

If you ever knew anyone who lived during the Great Depression (1929-c.1938) you probably would have found them reluctant to throw anything away. Hoarders, by modern standards. But, having lived through times of sustained shortages in goods and limited opportunities for income, they found essential value in stretching things as far as they could go, re-purposing and recycling long before it became a green virtue signaling fad in the modern land of plenty. When everything was scarce, nothing was discarded.

Preparing for the return of hard times has waxed and waned in society since the end of World War Two. At the height of the Cold War many people followed what the government was doing by building nuclear fallout shelters in their backyards, stocked with canned goods and radiation meters. Y2K, when computers were supposed to glitch at the start of the new millennium as their clocks hit midnight, caused many to make sure they could handle weeks or months of possible disruption. The terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001 saw lots of people buy guns for protection from possible further terrorism. And the financial crisis of 2008 exposed too many people to the fragility of modern banking, and households built on mountains of debt.

More recently, the mainstream media have enjoyed mocking those who dare to be concerned about possible future scenarios and who take practical steps to put the odds in their favor. Shows like National Geographic's Doomsday Preppers and History Channel's Mountain Men go out of their way to find fringe characters and portray them in poor light for ratings. For good reason, those who are sensible, serious and more mainstream tend to keep a low profile and avoid adversarial media like the proverbial plague. Not least because the oft-broadcast strategy of some who are woefully unprepared is to either go begging on the door of the friend or neighbor who they know have stocked up or, even worse, to try to take whatever they need from them by force. Embrace the Need-to-Know principle. In an emergency, the fewer unworthy people who know about your basement full of extras, the better.

The problem with prepping, though, is that attaining that basement full of extras can be overwhelming. If you read some of the iconic works on the subject, it can quickly seem that the only meaningful way to be truly prepared is to have already bugged out to a temperate zone farm in the Rocky Mountains with an arsenal of weapons, a HAM radio license and enough food storage to last a decade or two. Lots of the prepping world focuses on "stuff": gadgets and gizmos; large stores of staples; the best guns, knives, ammunition; medical equipment etc. It all costs money and some of it costs a lot of money - more than the average family budget can bear in any reasonable timeframe.

Quality prepping is as much, if not more, about acquiring new skills and building a community of like-minded people than it is "stuff". Picking up a first aid certificate, learning how to pressure can venison and taking real self-defense training from a competent instructor is a lot more valuable than piles of kit. Even better if, in your own trusted group, there is a doctor, a dentist, a welder, a farmer, a deputy sheriff and someone with 3 tours of Iraq and Afghanistan under their belt. That would make any piles of kit you do have priceless. But "all the gear and no idea" is definitely not the way to go.

First of all, however, our readership in Wyoming should pat itself heartily on the back for already being in one of the safest, most robust and prepper friendly states in the US. Natural disasters are few and far between. The long winters and strong winds weed out a lot of weaker souls. There are no mega cities with all the extremes of crime, degeneracy, and population which pose great risks. Wyoming is already chock full of like-minded people for whom the idea of being able to cope with whatever is thrown at them is a way of life. No state income taxes, strong privacy laws and solid Western values. There are not too many other states that can boast the same.

With living in Wyoming as a strong foundation, a huge amount can be achieved by taking small steps, and taking them often. Try to do a little something every day. Buy a few extra canned goods on each trip to the grocery store and slowly build up the pantry. Get a few extra of any essential medications. Take an EMT class at the local college. Turn off the TV and instead read a book on food storage. Get some friends together to can peaches - no doubt someone you know would happily teach a class on canning to a group. Someone else you know might teach you about welding or reloading or starting a raised bed garden. Join a church or form a gardening club at your church.

Acquire new, practical skills now while resources, training and equipment are available and while there is a luxury of time in which to practice. Spread those new skills among family and friends so that you can help each other in different areas. Build a library of instruction books and reference materials. Download "how-to" YouTube videos against the day the internet is disrupted.

Exercise, lose weight and get stronger. Remember the first rule of Zombieland? "Cardio. When the virus struck, the first ones to go were the fatties." We can all eat better and exercise more. The healthier we are now, the more resilient we will be under stress. Let's all get moving and move more tomorrow than we did today. The only person you are competing against is yourself.

Make it as fun as you can. Go for a hike and make a temporary shelter. Camp out, if only in your own backyard. Hide a care package in the woods and retrieve it in a month. Turn the power and water off for the weekend and make do. Build a "Bug Out" or "Get Home" bag and put it to the test. If there is any chance at all that you might have to leave at short notice (e.g., wildfire) practice loading up the car and getting out of "Dodge" in under two hours.

To the usual "beans, bullets and band aids" we would add personal finance. Debt is risk and one of the biggest risks you can run is living beyond your means. Sadly, this is the current American way with the average credit card debt being around $7000, auto loans $28,000 and student loans being $58,000 per household. The most realistic disasters the majority face are the loss of income and/or health crisis along with the resultant medical bills. We like the Dave Ramsey method. Pay off your debts smallest to largest regardless of interest rates, that way you get strong emotional reinforcement from actually knocking something out soonest. Build a small, $1000 emergency fund as quickly as you can then grow it to 3 - 6 months of expenses but only after you have paid off everything but the house. Be deliberate in cultivating good financial habits. If you have to borrow money for something, it means you cannot afford it.

Just like the wise guidance on never trying to time the stock market, do not believe anyone who makes a strong prediction about an impending disaster, financial collapse or apocalypse. Chaos and Black Swan theories seem to have teamed up to make forecasting impossible. Take the slow and steady approach. Find your motivation and do not get swept up in the urgency of the zealots or the herd. Don't panic when everyone else is. Don't panic at all. The ideal time to stock up on the items you need is when they are plentiful and cheap. Covid 19 has given a glimpse of how fragile global supply chains are and what happens when they are disrupted. The disruptions continue but take advantage of where supply and prices ease to defend against the next round of shortages or rationing. Looking ahead, anticipating and planning can save you a great deal of time and money.

These days it is all too easy to cook up a myriad of dangerous scenarios: inflation is already here and a rise in interest rates will choke America's ability to make its debt payments; hyperinflation might be the result or, perhaps, massive currency devaluation; another crash in the derivative markets might bring down the global financial system; Covid 22 might be much worse than the current pandemic; a cyber attack might take down the entire electrical grid or destroy a vital pipeline; China's own domestic troubles might make invading Taiwan an attractive option; Iran and Israel might finally go to war; the federal government might start rounding up right wing trouble makers and confiscating guns. The list goes on and each scenario can contribute to your own motivation to strengthen your personal situation. But don't panic. Keep Calm and Carry On, being more prepared today than you were yesterday.