The Unspoken Dilemma of 2020

Dilemma

Thirteen months ago, the entire United States was sent into a tailspin of a year. Many faults were exposed in our current system. Most of which were addressed by the talking heads on mainstream media, almost nonstop. There is one glaring flaw that I saw very few people address. In essence, it was basic, short term self-reliance.

This is most obviously demonstrated in what I call “The Great Toilet Paper Shortage” back in March and April. We saw people going to the store on a seemingly daily basis for everyday goods. While having a shortage on a luxury item, such as toilet paper, was a hassle for the average person, something else was also in shortage. For a few weeks, there was an actual shortage on meat and produce. Mostly due to shipping delays and people buying more than their typical amount, there was for the first time (in my memory) a food shortage in my local grocery store. We saw first hand how easy it was to delay food in a centralized supply chain. If one Tyson plant went down for any amount of time, it would result in a significant percentage of chicken out of the food supply for a given region.

Back when our grandparents were our age, and in much of Southern history, they didn’t need to visit stores daily for their food. They had things called larders or root cellars. They would keep a rather large quantity of food on hand. Most of the time, it was enough to last them through any rough episodes, whether it was a natural disaster or a short term local supply shortage. Point being, they had a good bit of self-reliance. Today, most people no longer have larders, and root cellars have been filled in. However, we have something even better: deep freezers.

It is my opinion we should take a page from our people that came before us and rediscover a self-reliant life style. Self-reliance is measured in time.

Why?

“Are you saying we should all become preppers now?” Well, everyone is already a prepper, the real question is what are you preparing for. Like anything, there is a sliding scale. On one end, you have the gungho prepper who has 6,000 buckets of rice and is waiting for the zombies to come. On the the other, you have those who are “happy go lucky,” they don’t expect anything bad to happen and the grocery stores will always have food because, well, the store always had food in the past. (Side note, these are the same people who get up in arms over “price gouging” after a disaster, not realizing they should have bought water two weeks ago).

One should analyze their situation. I don’t get blizzards, so I’m not going to focus my preparations around what happens if I get snowed in. I do, however, live in hurricane alley, so I need to focus how to survive after we face a nasty storm. I’ve rode through a few hurricanes, probably the hardest part, as long as you don’t suffer severe damages, is losing power. Things we take for granted during the good times are things we no longer have after a storm. What are you eating? How are you cooking? Where are you getting water? Do you have a back-up plan if your first plan fails? After a disaster, the first 48 hours are on you. No one is coming to rescue you, you’re on your own. Thankfully, there are ways for you to better prepare yourself so you can ensure your family’s survival.

Getting Prepared

I would, like most things, suggest one take a moderate approach to modern survival prepping. Starting small is the best approach. You could go out and buy the expensive survival buckets, but I find them to be expensive, bulky and, frankly, not tasty. Starting small with a few extra bags of beans, couple extra pounds of meat and some canned goods goes a long way. Spreading cost over a few months really helps with being consistent with preps. If you’re someone who plans their meals out ahead of time, one thing that you could do is buy double. Instead of one can of spaghetti sauce, buy two and extra noodles. Buy food you already eat on a consistent basis. The reason for this is you can cycle these items out and it doesn’t break the bank. After awhile, you don’t even notice you’re doing it.

Ideally, one should have 90 days worth of supplies on hand. Only you can determine what supplies you need for those 90 days. Food and water are obviously a must, but medication, first aid, tools, generator, fuel, these are all things to consider.

We must begin to take control of our lives in all areas, even the mundane. Have a small stock of supplies in your house gives a great sense of security. When we stop living day-to-day but rather live with a forward thinking mentality, our entire world changes. We start with a 90 day stock of food and it spreads to every aspect of our lives. Eventually, we can break away from their system completely.  

– By Confederate Kornbred