How I got started prepping

by ldavies1
from the Urban Kansas Prairie

How I got started prepping—

I can’t remember what first peeked my curious 15 months ago but I began to read and research. I wanted to understand why people were prepping and how they were doing it. It was a year of many natural disasters so it was not completely out of the realm of understanding. I soon learned that I had a wealth of experiences that applied if I renewed my skills. I grew up in an urban area but my family camped, did lots of scouting, and had big gardens. Mom canned lots of fruits and vegetable. My dad was a carpenter so we did lots of hands on repair work on our house, my grandparents houses, neighbors, and the rental houses. So doing it yourself was always the first option. Over the years as I raised my children and they became adults, I had gotten so I did less and less for myself. Now as I approach retirement, I am prepping and rebuilding old skills and new ones. This is my journey. It is more about skill building than just acquiring stuff. As many have said, you can read all day long but if you do not learn to do it is of no use.

I started with food storage. I read and researched and printed more prepping lists than I care to admit. I finally came to the conclusion that I wanted six months of regular food and six months of long term storage food. I have accomplished both of those goals. So now when I find a GOOD sale I buy several. Last week I came up on an unadvertised sale of boneless hams for a dollar a pound. I purchased four of them. That was about 24 pounds. I brought them home and cut each one into three pieces and froze them. I now have meat for 48 meals for about fifty cents or less per meal. Not too bad.

Rotating the regular food storage is very important and I continue to find ways to do that. I have several can organizers in my kitchen cabinets. These little devices are easy –First In First out. I also have steel shelves in my storage room. Before I put can goods or jars on the shelves, I write the expiration date on the lid or label with a sharpie large enough to easily read. Then I put the new item at the back of the row sliding older items to the front. I always use the one with the closes expiration date next.

I also have some wheat and a hand grinder. One of my upcoming projects is to grind the wheat and make bread from scratch. I made bread from scratch many years ago but wheat grinding will be a new skill but that is for a future blog.
Ida