Review...even more now

Over the holidays, I took some time to spend it with family and friends as well as sit back, read and review. Yes, I am aware it is now the middle of April but I am a slow thinker. Well, more of what is considered a “processor”. When an emergency happens, my brain fires on all cylinders and things work out great. However, when I have the time, no pressure, no firm deadlines, I sit back and think, ponder, reflect and review over the thing(s) that is the focal point. For this post, it was PREPAREDNESS.

 

During the spending time with family and friends, I decided to watch one of my favorite series of movies “Resident Evil”. You don’t have to like it or even agree with it, but it stops my hectic lifestyle for a couple of hours to watch someone kick someone else’s butt <keeping it clean>. My wife decided that she would gladly sit and watch them with me if I would get up and turn on the light in the middle of the night when she made her routine bathroom visits. I called it “fair trade”.

After watching a disk the other night, I was sealing up the Netflix envelope to send it back and my wife asked me a question that made me start thinking a little bit harder (dang it). She questioned, “I know there are no zombies. And the CDC has proven that we can’t produce them at this time. But men are men and they do stupid stuff. If someone created a virus of some magnitude, similar to the one in the movie, are we prepared for that?”

My immediate response was “No, I would need more beans and definitely more bullets.” But the question nagged me for the rest of the night and again this morning. Is mankind really that crazy that they might invent something like that on purpose OR on accident? I don’t know the answer to that question except for I hope not. The question did move my butt along into doing some things I hadn’t already done to get prepped.

The other side of my thinking is based off of a previous post of mine, “What Are You Preparing For?” and a book I have been chipping away at. I say chipping away because it is just shy of 500pp. on 8 ½” x 11” with double column pages. 

Atticus Freeman (@selfreliantinfo on Twitter) recommended to me “When Technology Fails” by Matthew Stein. In it, he calls out seven possible scenarios that could happen as an impending event and mentions the possibilities of even more. In reflecting on which of the scenarios I was preparing for, I realized I was preparing for all of them and none of them. 

Let me offer a fairly simple explanation. You see, there are many things that I know I cannot prepare for as a single entity. If it is an Avian Flu Pandemic, then I hope the preps I have will do just fine. If it is a Zombie Apocalypse, then hopefully I have enough bullets. If it is a Global or Social Economic Collapse, I trust that all my training is still holding up and I can guide my family and friends through it.

I am not saying that I am totally prepared for whatever may come my way. I personally think I am not even close. However, my base preps should get me through as a starting point to just about everything in one way, shape or form. In other words, I will use my base preps regardless of the event.

I then have to look at my secondary preps and see that they, along with my base preps, will get me through to a certain point for total of about 80% of what could happen. So that leaves about a 20% gap. Whether I am able to or should ever fill that void is one of the things I am pondering. I know that I will not leave my family hungry while I am prepping for that 20% void as we all, yes even you, prep on a budget. I will ensure that my current stores are sufficient to last us for a period of time and I am completely satisfied with my work. Once that has been done then and only then will I start focusing on the 20%.

You see, what I realized is I could focus on one specific, impending event. Scientist could give me the data to back it up. Friends could encourage me to focus on this one thing. But in reality, it may not happen. I would be ecstatic if it didn’t as the goal is “Be prepared and be happy that you don’t have to use it”. Instead of Solar Flares pushing an EMP (electromagnetic pulse) to send us back to the 1800s, a tornado may just come right through my neighborhood. Or vice versa and then what would I do? Thank you to Doomsday Preppers for bringing this tidbit to my attention.

I had to take the fear mindset that grips so many people and change my thinking. It is not fear that causes me to react but comfort. Let me say that again. It is not fear that causes me to react but comfort. If a person is fearful sometimes it leads a person to panic or to inactivity. There are a small percentage of people that respond “correctly”, if there is such a thing, to fear. However, when I am comfortable, I know I can focus on those things that need to be done. I can see where my gaps are because I have taken the time to dry run through scenarios, eaten some of my rotated preps and practiced my tactical maneuvers because I am not in fear for my life or the lives of my family and friends.

After doing that I have the ability to move forward when the event happens and not be stuck in my tracks not knowing what to do. It is then, in that “fear” that muscle memory and rote action takes over. 

CALL TO ACTION

Review your plan. Plan to review. Practice and run through your immediate scenarios both strategic and tactical. Lastly and probably the most important, pray. Pray that you don’t live in fear for your life as that is not living; it is, in reality, dying.

Until then, use your instincts to survive.

Recipe: "Granny's" Iron Skillet Cornbread

I was getting ready for an upcoming camping trip the other day and grabbed my trusty cast iron skillet. One of my kids was looking over my shoulder and turned to the family and hollered at the top of her lungs, "Daddy's got the skillet! He's going to make cornbread."

As that was not my intentional plan, I had to explain that I was moving it to get to a smaller skillet for camping. There was a sense of deflation in the room much like when a child's much desired Christmas toy turns out to be nothing more than clothes from Aunt Betty. I looked at their faces and recalled the last time I made cornbread in which only half of the whole thing was eaten. As I mentioned this event to them, they simply said, "Dad, that wasn't Granny's cornbread. It was one that you 'doctored' up with all the fancy crap". Laughing about the Jalapeno cornbread I had made, I agreed to make "Granny's Iron Skillet Cornbread".

*As for the Jalapeno cornbread, it tasted great. Most of the family just doesn't care for Jalapeno cornbread. Everyone tried it but preferred just normal cornbread with butter with their meal.

I have enjoyed this recipe for many years. As a child, I knew dinner was going to be a feast when mom pulled out the cast iron skillet to make cornbread. It usually meant roast beef, potatoes and some other vegetable, usually greens.

I hope you enjoy it as much as I do. Here is the recipe:


Iron Skillet Cornbread 

1 cup flour (Martha White self rising)

3 cups cornmeal (Martha White buttermilk)

3 tablespoons sugar + generous dash of salt

Buttermilk

2 eggs

*1/2 cup chopped Jalapeno peppers (or more for spicy) as an optional ingredient 

Place cast iron skillet into oven while pre-heating at 350 with cooking oil to coat bottom of pan

Mix flour, cornmeal, sugar, salt into bowl by sifting together.  Add buttermilk to form batter mixture medium thick (pancake batter) mix in two beaten eggs.  Remove hot pan and pour ½ oil into batter and mix.  Pour full batter into oiled pan and bake 1 hour at 350. 



Have a great week!

Until then,

Use your instincts to survive!

GOAL!

The other day I was working feverishly on a preparedness project. I repeatedly kept moving things from one pile to another and realized I was getting nowhere. After scratching my head for a moment, I understood what the problem was. I didn't know what the end goal was to be. Why was I moving things from one pile to the other? What was the project supposed to look like when it was "complete"?

Now, the only "New Year's Resolution" I have is, not to have a New Year's Resolution. I know that sounds funny but I have found that it sets me up for failure every year. I will go hard and heavy for a week, a month or even three months only to fizzle out because I am not reaching the intended goal because it seems so far away. Instead, I have implemented something a little more productive.

I am not sure what you would call my method except for setting small goals to get to the bigger one but that becomes a mouthful. Not only that but there are people more qualified than I am to teach you about goal setting so I have included an excerpt from a great tutorial located at the Goal Setting Guide website:
 

I encourage you to pick up a pen and a piece of paper and jot down the goals you want to reach. Look at each goal and evaluate it. Make any changes necessary to ensure it meets the criteria for a SMART goals:

S = Specific

M = Measurable

A = Attainable

R = Realistic

T = Timely

The post today is not specifically about goal setting. It is, however, more about accomplishing smaller chunks of the overall goal in order to lead to satisfactory completion of the major task at hand."Uh, what did he just say?" Let me explain it this way.

I have gotten larger tasks completed by breaking them into smaller and more manageable tasks. For example, the first task in my mind was to ensure my family was prepared for a year of no electricity. My impending event was our yearly winter ice storms and the slowness of the power company getting power restored to my house. I was going to stock enough food and water for a year for myself and my family. This was a crazy idea! I didn't have that kind of time nor that much money. I did have the time and money to take the larger goal and break it into smaller goals in order to complete it. Make sense?

How did I do that? My first goal was ensuring that we had enough food, water and security for 72 hours. Three days. Josh Robbs from GotPrep.com stated in a recent podcast, "You can live without food for 72 hours". He also mentioned that food may not be in your 72-hour plan because of this fact. Water may, and should, be included though. Another example is if it is winter, blankets and/or other heat sources might also be included in your plan. This is an example of how you can adjust the short term goals as needed while never losing site of the overall long term goal. I broke the year down into a manageable 72 hours.

I was grocery shopping with my lovely and wonderful wife the other day and I casually mentioned the 72-hour plan to her. She stopped me, grabbed my hand, smiled and said, "we have enough food for three weeks, so what are you going to work on next?". This hit me as I didn't realize just how much food we had because I hadn't broken it out into daily food versus our food storage items. It is with that statement that I have since stopped, reviewed my goals and adjusted based on what the end result is to be. 
 
By adjusting after reviewing, I was able to correct the course that the ship is already moving on by adjusting the amount of water as well as a few other items that need to be added to the plan. It is because of this that I am excited about finishing up the last little bit of my first goal of the 72-hour plan and being able to start working on a three week plan.

Before I leave this week's post as just a download of information, start thinking about your adjustments and how to get the short goals accomplished. By using the SMART method from above, you can have things done sooner than you think and feel great about your accomplishments. 

I hope this makes things a little easier. I know it did for me. As always, feel free to comment on this post below.

Until then,

Use your instincts to survive!

Special Thanks to Josh Robbs at GotPrep.com

Photo:
freedigitalphotos.net/Grant Cochrane

Review

I thought we were going to have a cold Christmas based on the weather patterns, but when I turned on the weather report, I found it was going to be 70 degrees for several weeks. Imagine my surprise when I woke up to another high 60's day and by lunch time the temperature was in the low 50's. This has been the trend since early December. Now personally, I enjoy the cold weather. The briskness of it along with the rapid movement of wildlife as they forage to ensure they are prepared for a cold couple of days.

I was watching the finches and wrens this afternoon while I was cooking my lunch, and they were scurrying all over the ground gathering seeds and small bugs. As I watched them, I started to run through a mental list in my mind of how much food we had in the pantry and in storage. This, along with my physical list, put me at ease and I continued watching them get ready. The rain started to drizzle and it was as if some where saying, “five more minutes! I'm not ready!”

How many of us are saying the same thing? I know there are times when I sit back and feel accomplished about completing my preparation tasks for the week. On other days, I begin to freak out because I don't think I have done enough to provide for my family to provide for their well being, protection, and well-stocked food stores. So today, I just want you to review.

Review. Review for whatever disaster(s) you have been preparing for. Are your lists up to date? Do you have enough if the power is out for an evening, a day or a week? Or if you aren't preparing for a disaster, should you be? Take time to review what you have done thus far. There is nothing wrong with taking a moment to sit back to see what you have accomplished. It is also recommended practice to review periodically to determine if there are corrections or additions that need to be made in your preparations over the next three, six, nine and twelve months.

I want to keep this short this week and will probably also write a short post for next week. Take this time of year and review your inventory, what you are doing, or even what you feel you "should" be doing. It is during this time you may want to also broach the subject of preparedness with your family and friends.

Regardless of what you are doing during this time, have a great week!

Until then,

Use your instincts to survive!


Photo:
Freedigitalphotos.net/Jeff Ratcliff
Special thanks to SelfReliantinfo

Recipe - Zesty Crackers

Looking for something easy to make to keep the guests out of the kitchen while you are cooking this season. Try this version of Zesty Crackers. My dad brought me some and after I tried them, I definitely wanted his recipe. I am here to tell you, it was WELL worth the bribe.

Although I will take it, there is no need to bribe me for this crispy-treated recipe. Enjoy!

• 1 Box Saltines
• 1 1/2 C Canola Oil
• 1 Package Ranch Dressing or Dip (Hidden Valley works well)
• 2 tsp Crushed Red Pepper Flakes (add more for extra spice)

1. Take a large empty (cleaned) pickle jar and add entire box of crackers
2. Mix in the remaining ingredients in a separate dish and then pour the mix into the jar over the crackers.
3. Replace lid.
4. Turn jar from upright to upside down and repeat about 5 times
5. Lay jar on its side and turn 1/4 turn every 1-2 hours for first 10 hours (I turn it every time I pass by the jar)
6. Turn jar every 3/4 turn every 3-4 hours.

After about 24 hours they are done. Not just crispy but zesty and very tasty.

Keep in mind it is not an exact science or recipe, if you will, but it is relatively easy and my children usually do the turning for me, so all I have to do is combine ingredients.


Until then,


Use your instincts to survive!



Photo:
freedigitalphotos.net/Stoonn