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COOL PRODUCT
I had my first “like” on one of my posts just a few posts back, it was from a fellow blogger. Maybe she did it to get me to check out her site, I don’t know, but I did check it out and saw that she is an authorized dealer of a product that I think looks pretty cool. I like it for a couple of reasons: one is because it addresses a need most of us have in our quest for resilience – home security, and the other is because it is a product that an unsupportive spouse could potentially be convinced to approve of. Here is the link to her blog: http://stealtharmour.wordpress.com/, here is a link to the main site: http://www.stealtharmour.com/ and here are a couple of thoughts on the product:
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– It can be for home protection whether TSHTF or not because it could still deter/prevent break-ins – something my wife is on board with but would rather play the odds than have bars put on the windows. Bars on the windows are a little extreme anyway. Besides, even with bars the glass can still be broken.
– The main site says it has 98% UVA rejection while still allowing UVB rays in for plants.
– They can also be a preventative measure against storm and hail damage as well as break-ins. I wonder how much it would cost to replace the windows compared to applying this window treatment (I actually don’t know). Storm damage prevention would be the selling point that I would need to focus on because my spouse will never believe TS-is going to-HTF, she’ll only believe once it is actually happening. In fact, even then she may not believe it until TS-has-HTF for a while.
So if your greatest challenge in becoming resilient is an unsupportive spouse and you are not that challenged monetarily, then this could be an easy way to start showing your spouse the advantages of prepping and being prepared for the unexpected. That’s what being resilient is all about. You could even stage an attempted break-in or vandalism on your own place to push her in the direction of the going along with the purchase… Just sayin…
PARDON THE MESS
I find myself in a rather strange situation making this post, as I never really expected people to actually read this blog – especially this soon. I’m glad you are, don’t get me wrong, I just never took the prospect too seriously. After all, who’d want to read the rants of just some average dude? I’m not an expert of any kind. I’m just your typical disgruntled cubicle clone who is fed up with the avarice, materialism, me-first consumption, and self absorbed consumerism that has become so commonplace in our society, as well as with the blatant disregard disdain for accountability, ethics, morality, personal responsibility, consequences for actions, creation rather than consumption, etc. that is the inevitable result. As far as mindset goes, society is becoming the Borg. But I digress…
So since I now know that I have a reader base, I feel I should mention that you may notice this blog looking different from time to time as you check in to see what’s new. I need to ask y’all to bear with me as I play around with the look of my site until I find the format that is truly me. The content won’t change, since it is merely a record of my daily journey toward a more sustainable and resilient lifestyle that will eventually (God willing) culminate in personal freedom and liberty. As you know from my last post I can’t truly dedicate any serious blocks of time to work that out, I just have to try it piecemeal for all to see until I finally get it right, and who knows how long that could take. Nonetheless, I shall persevere!
I’M BACK
I haven’t written in a while for a couple of reasons: one I just haven’t been that inspired, probably because I am exhausted and life/work has been quite demanding; and two I can only do it when my wife isn’t around because she hates me blogging as much as she hates my truck.
Just for clarification, I paid $1500 for my truck and have since put about another $1500 in it. So overall I have spent $3000 on a truck with a full (8 foot) bed, a manual transmission and an inline six engine. The thing is practically a tractor. It is a power house beast that’ll last forever. She hates it because it is ugly, and thinks I should have used the money to apply toward a credit card. If you ask me the truck is well on its way to paying for itself. We have used it many times for things like hauling stuff to the dump, bringing home the television armoire she bought used (no delivery option and it wouldn’t fit in anything but the truck due to its size and weight – it couldn’t be laid on its side without risking structural integrity), and bringing home a pallet of sod. I wouldn’t feel comfortable asking to use the neighbor’s minivan to fill with sod.
So back to my original point, I have to post in secret unless I want to deal with a bunch of attitude. She thinks that it is time that could be better spent finding another job in fortune 500 CorpAmerika. She just won’t accept that my blog serves any kind of purpose other than wasting my time. She thinks it’s about as useful as watching reruns of “Friends”, so I must get up early enough to do my posts by 6:30 AM. Like I say in my tag line, “…No Money, No Time, and An Unsupportive Spouse.” Thing is, I may one day want to create a blog that generates revenue because I am a huge believer in multiple revenue streams. In fact, that is a concept I am teaching my kids because that may be the only way many in their generation will be able to do more than just scrape buy. Redundancy implies resilience. This blog is a perfect training ground for that.
Another thing is: the more people I can show how to get on the road to liberty and resilience, the less power the current centralized systems have. Options are power, and the larger the community the more power it has. Many people look at what others are doing and have accomplished and feel like it is out of reach for them to do that. This blog shows them the baby steps that I am taking are steps almost anyone can take. That gives people hope and direction, which then brings them into the resilience community. But we must take action as individuals in order for the community to be viable. For me right now, if my job goes away, I am dead in the water. I have nothing in place to mitigate that catastrophe so I would be nothing more than a burden in that community, which by definition would mean I am not part of that community at all. I am still completely dependent upon the corporate payroll system and the just-in-time grocery system to meet my needs. That must change. I must get back up systems in place – and so must you!
Action
- Took my youngest with me to buy some more raw milk from a local farm. [Supporting local community, supporting small farming, improving health through quality food. Also showing by example the importance of buying local and natural]
“If we wait for the governments, it’ll be too little, too late; if we act as individuals, it’ll be too little; but if we act as communities, it might just be enough, just in time.” – Rob Hopkins, founder of the Transition Town movement.
GETTING STARTED
I keep allowing myself to get distracted by all of the different preps that can be undertaken. Some of that is due to my paranoid nature, and some is due to the allure of being completely independent and self-sufficient. Some of it is the appeal of learning some forgotten skill set, something that makes me unique and would make me needed and vital should something occur that would require that skill set. It’s like being the keeper of knowledge, Indiana Jones or Tomb Raider style.
But alas, I need to stay focused on my top 3 priorities. Many preps are for complete independence from the system, or for total collapse; for instance, making my own fuel. But what about starting my garden, where does it land on the list of priorities? It isn’t going to do much for cutting the grocery expense, but it has a lot more value (utility) in helping me achieve my number one priority – health. So it is important to ask: How much will an endeavor I want to undertake help in achieving my goals vs. the effort and input required to accomplish it? How much value will it provide? Should it be a higher or lower priority than some less exciting goal like getting my resume updated? I can only make these decisions for my own situation, everyone is going to have a different priority/pressing need.
My three main goals that I have identified are: Health, Cash Flow, and Storm Preparedness. Beyond that each of these can be broken into subcategories. Health can be broken down into Nutrition, Exercise, mental health, Dr checkups, and procedures; cash flow can be reduce expenses and increase cash flow (which can be further broken down into multiple revenue streams, overtime, new job, etc); and storm preparedness can be broken down into first aid kit, tornado plan and supplies, loss of electricity.
Some preps have “crossover” value, meaning they can provide resilience for multiple scenarios or they meet multiple goals. The first aid kit is a perfect example. So is a garden. As mentioned above, it can provide quality food as well as exercise, it can reduce the grocery expense, it can feed the family in times of crisis. In fact, Jack Spirko at TSP said something profound along those very lines in his podcast from 12/21/11: “If you can not feed yourself, you do not have liberty.” Think about it, if someone else feeds you, or you depend on someone else in order to provide food for you and your family, you are their servant. You cannot do things they disapprove of or they will take away your ability to survive. That is not liberty and that is not freedom; that is slavery (bondage).
With all that in mind, I have started exercising and am starting a garden. Here is what I am starting with:
Back and Side Fence
Black Berry Bush
Not much to get excited about, I know. But that’s rather the point. It is the journey of a thousand miles, but I am undaunted.
RESILIENCY = CONTINGENCY PLANNING
Be prepared. I may have said this before but it bears repeating: I am more of a resilientist than a true prepper or survivalist. However there is a lot of crossover, so much so that at times it is hard to tell the difference. I think my distinction between them lies in the purpose or approach of each. A prepper is planning for disaster(s) that they feel are eminent, whereas a resilientist is looking at having more liberty and freedom in their life whether a crisis occurs or not; and a survivalist is prepping for the worst possible scenario to happen. Another difference between a prepper and a resilientist is this: a resilientist is trying to develop personal liberty with a community mindset, whereas a prepper has more of a soloist mindset.
There is a great sense of security and peace of mind that comes with knowing you are prepared for various hardships even if it is highly unlikely that you will ever need those preparations. But there are some scenarios that aren’t terribly unlikely, like tornadoes, hurricanes, and ice storms. They happen to someone on a yearly basis, could your family survive it? The loss of a loved one is almost never a national or international disaster, but to the family it happens to, this event can be defined as a disaster or crisis because it could be devastating on a personal level. Could your family survive it? Something as routine as a job loss can be a crisis or disaster to some families. This is where thinking outside the box – seeing things from different perspectives – comes into play. Some of the steps taken in becoming resilient will help you survive these seemingly mundane “disasters”. Though unsexy and unsensational, they are the most likely types of crisis to occur.
So here’s a good way to start that can help you to show your wife that this is actually a good thing you are doing. Go to the dollar store and buy some $1 toilet paper, $1 toothpaste, and any other $1 household consumable and stash them somewhere that you can use as a storage place for all things like this – but don’t let her know you’ve done it and stash it someplace she won’t find it! Then one evening when y’all are out of toilet paper and she is hating the thought of having to go to the store to get some more, come to the rescue by retrieving your stash of tp. Be sure you do this without her seeing where your stash place is! Let her know you picked some things up to keep around for storm preparedness. After a few times she will start to see the benefit of having household items stockpiled.
SuburbanResilience 