Survival or Denial?

Have you considered wondered what might happen if you were involved in a “Sandy” type storm, or if all of the electricity would suddenly be turned off for some reason or another for an indefinite period of time; or even worse, you found yourself and your family completely isolated from the rest of the world, you need to consider being prepared.

Now I don’t want you to rush out and buy five guns, fifty boxes of shells, empty the grocery shelves, dig a cave and huddle frightened in a corner, that is not what this is all about. Being prepared requires intelligent planning, cautious buying, and basic common sense.

I recently came back from Iowa where I visited a few friends and relatives. It was interesting to find that one of the friends my wife and I stayed with for a few days had a room set up in their basement that housed enough canned foods and dried foods to last them approximately 90 days. I asked why they did that and they informed me that they are members of the Latter Day Saints Church and it has been suggesting the preparedness program since the 1930’s. When we visited their son’s farm and found a larger warehouse room yet that could feed probably ten or more people for 90 days plus several bottles of honey. (I discovered that he raised bees as well.)

The other evening I met a couple of gentlemen from another county that have formed a neighborhood watch group. It is their feeling that as a group of common-sense citizens, everyone could be kept living through food, water, canning, and some sort of animal raising, long enough for the infrastructure to be repaired. After the devastating tornado they spent many long hours in a successful attempt to get folks in their neighborhood interested in the program. Presently they have a “Square Foot Garden” available for those who want to raise something they feel important, and a “Community Garden” that everyone, or anyone, can work under the direction of someone who understands what is needed to keep a group of people, their size, in eatable foodstuffs, along with the canned goods they have set aside. They have gone a step further and have asked each family to raise a type of animal or bird, namely chickens, ducks, geese or rabbits for meat, and goats for milk. (Did you know that one goat can furnish enough milk for a family of four?)

Here are some of things they have suggested:

1.If you own a gun and are not certain how to use it, contact a specialist that can train you in the proper way of handling it, shooting it, and especially the proper way to maintain it.

2. Learn how to trap or snare animals for food, and how to preserve the meat by canning it.

   Your children will find this part of the training fascinating.

2. You can Mylar Wrap freeze dried foodstuffs, grain (rice is a good example) and other foods for storage. It is suggested you go to the LDS website for information on the Mylar Wraps.

3. Consider learning (your state park can help you) what edible plants are available and how to identify them

4. Talk to your neighbors about a neighborhood preparedness group.

5. Take the time to meet and communicate with your neighbors. Get to know them.

If you would like more information on how you could start your  own neighborhood watch group, check your local internet search engine under the search word “Preparedness.”

 

Motivation

Motivation - To Provide with a motive (Reference: Funk and Wagnalls Standard Desk Dictionary) Motivation - The act or the incidence motivating; the state or condition of being motivated . Motivate – Incite; impel (Reference: Webster’s Encyclopedic Unabridged Dictionary)

     Those were a lot of words just to describe something so simple as, getting geared up. My dad was a great motivator. He used to say “move,” and if you didn’t, he motivated us with a razor strap. You probably have no idea what a razor strap is. Well, for those that don’t know, back when they used a thing called a straight razor ( a very sharp knife sharpened like a surgical blade) to shave with, and it started to get too dull to cut those wicked whiskers we men get, the razor strap was removed from its hook on the wall. The razor was moved back and forth across the surface of the strap, with the sharp part moving away from the surface so it wouldn’t cut into the leather, and that action sharpened the razor to a surgical sharpness.

     Now the lesser known use for that heavy leather strap was to motivate my brother and me when we needed motivated. Mom was a pretty good motivator too. Whenever we said something that we should not say, she motivated us to a better use of our mouths by putting part of a bar of soap in it. Let me tell you that in those days, with that soap…well you get the idea.

     In this so-called civilized world, that we live in today, we have so many motivation devices you can’t count them. A quick example might be these; Intimidation, Fear, Starvation, Desire, Success, lack of Success, Talent, Illness, Love, Hate, Health Concerns, Spanking, Time- outs. How many times have you said to yourself something like, I’ll starve before I eat that! Most of us have said it, but we didn’t mean it. Starving is the last thing we would really do, and if we were reaching that point, we would be MOTIVATED to eat whatever it was we said we would starve before consuming. Several years ago I wrote my first book. It wasn’t much of a book, just a book of poems describing different occupations. The motivation for writing that little book was my wife who asked, "Why don’t you answer those kids that you meet at the school crossings with a book of answers? I answered, what questions? (I was a school crossing guard at the time.) She said, “You are always telling me that they ask you why the workers that they see wear different clothing, or do different things.” In this case, The kids MOTIVATED her, through their questions to me. She MOTIVATED me to write the book. Unfortunately, no one motivated people to read it, so the book was not very successful. Perhaps I should have worked harder on the Motivation Factor. (see next week)