PREPAREDNESS-Where do you draw the line?

[your_comforting_company]

Likewise, I'm not trying to go against the grain. My preparations are part of our southern lifestyle. All my life I remember putting food in storage and learning how to do things for ourselves. Many of the skills for me are like hobbies. I make them fun for me and others and rather than start panic and pandemonioum with doomsday prophecies, I make it a sort of "game". That gets people involved without knowing they are involved in my crazy ways.
The only way we've changed our lives is by simplifying the things we "want" and replacing those things with things we know we will need in the future whether SHTF or not. For us, it's more of a heritage way of life than some extreme modification to "normalcy" whatever that is...
And learning is fun! Nothing quite compares to getting your hands dirty and making something out of nothing. Small achievements, like friction fire, are extremely rewarding. Being able to cook a meal that can feed 6 people and spending NO money to do it is reward enough for me (of course I can't take credit for something I was blessed with).

If nothing ever happens.. the S never HTF and teotwawki never comes to pass, we will have modified our lives just enough to find more appreciation in the little things and overall a more fulfilling life.
There are some teotwawki that I couldn't possibly prepare for nor avoid should they come, and I don't spend time preparing for something I know we couldn't survive... like nuclear holocaust... I prepare for those events that are survivable.

Survival is not an extreme way of thinking.. It's hardwired into all of us. We call it "the will to live" and anyone who doesn't have at least some preparations for the future will be fodder and are living "against the grain" that is pre-programmed. In my way of thinking THAT is unnatural... not "setting something aside for tomorrow".
Remember the ant and the grasshopper fable?

[BENESSE]

Miss B,
Rawles lives his lifestyle, so the question is then do you want to prepare or live the lifestyle? Can you make a living, living the lifestyle or do you need to make a living in order to prepare? For many, the survival retreat started out as a vacation home. Just some things to think about.

And therein lies the big quandary.
For me personally, living the Rawls lifestyle would be an extreme life choice which I'm not prepared to make nor do I think I could reasonably sustain. Rawls has found a way to make a decent living which affords him the set up he's got and the advantage of living there permanently. That's why I call him the gold standard and work down from that.
On a scale of 0-10...10 being Rawles, 0 being clueless and unprepared, I am sure I would rate low solely because of where I live-- a tough hadicap to work with. Not impossible by any stretch of the imagination, just more challenging than most.

[Sourdough]

And therein lies the big quandary.

Ahhh, perfectly laid out in the first chapter of Richard Bach's: "illusions". The fear which compels us to grip tightly to the security of the current environment, and forfeit potential "BLISS" (or destruction).

[BENESSE]

Ahhh, perfectly laid out in the first chapter of Richard Bach's: "illusions". The fear which compels us to grip tightly to the security of the current environment, and forfeit potential "BLISS" (or destruction).

We've done that once. 20 yrs ago we left the security of our then current environment for a 180 degree change with no guarantee that we'd actually like it or make it. Reason: jobs and more opportunity to "grow".
It was a very calculated decision for us. Not emotional in the least. At the stage of our lives, not taking chances with our livelihood (fiscal responsibility) is the foundation of preparedness, as we see it. It makes everything else that much stronger.

[Winnie]

I'm not sure how this is going to go down, I am in no way prepared, nor do I want to prepare to survive TEOTWAWKI. SHTF is different, I have preps, not as good as they could be, they are definitely a work in progress. Other than that, I pretty agree with Rick

[Rick]

And may I say I find Winnie quite an intelligent woman of impeccable taste.

[Old GI]

What a suck up!!!!!

[Rick]

No she's not.

[Winnie]

[SARKY]

Miss B,
It's a matter of doing what you can with what you have. Make your plans and preperations. Go through as many disaster senarios as you can along with your responses to them. Be realistic about the out comes and adjust. It is the best you can do unless YOU control your enviroment.

[BENESSE]

Thanks Sarky, that makes infinite sense.
The frustrating part is that the job is never done.

[Rick]

And remember that no matter how iron clad your plan is something will always go wrong. The disaster doesn't know your plan so it won't follow it. Be prepared to improvise.

[BENESSE]

Thinking about all the possibilities just makes my hair hurt.
I pine for the good ol' innocent & clueless times. Can't go back though...it'd be like unringing the bell.

[finallyME]

I am trying to prepare for the biblical prophecies. But, I also believe slow and steady wins the race.

[Rick]

I pine for the good ol' innocent & clueless times.

And when, pray tell, was that?

[crashdive123]

And when, pray tell, was that?

Thursday....

[Sourdough]

I pine for the good ol' innocent & clueless times. Can't go back though...it'd be like unringing the bell.

Yes, They say you never forget the first time........

[BENESSE]

Yes, They say you never forget the first time........

No you don't.
I remember exactly where I was and what I was doing. 9/11/2001...9 am...the office conference room...35th floor... looking out the window.

[SARKY]

Thinking about all the possibilities just makes my hair hurt.
I pine for the good ol' innocent & clueless times. Can't go back though...it'd be like unringing the bell.

You will find that most of the people around you go through life clueless. Don't let it over whelm you. Unless it is something so very catastrophic where noone and nothing that will survive, you will be in good shape to survive and thrive. Have you found anyone in your area that you can talk to about prepping and with whom you can band together?

[BENESSE]

You will find that most of the people around you go through life clueless. Don't let it over whelm you. Unless it is something so very catastrophic where noone and nothing that will survive, you will be in good shape to survive and thrive. Have you found anyone in your area that you can talk to about prepping and with whom you can band together?

I'm afraid not. It's like looking for a polar bear in the Mojave desert.