Patchwork Times by Judy Laquidara logo

The Prepping Challenge

Prepper is a term that has gotten popular lately. What is a prepper? Who’s a real prepper and who’s a prepper-wannabe?

Do we have to have a bunker buried out back somewhere? Do we have to have a huge arsenal of guns and ammo? Do we have to have a “bugout” location all planned and stockpiled with food? If so, I’m not a prepper because we do not have any of those things.

The word prepper doesn’t bother me but it seems a bit faddish, and even though I don’t use it real often, sometimes it’s just the best word to describe what I do and, it works for this challenge.

With each disaster, natural or man made, that I hear about, I think my prepping efforts ramp up a bit. Someone mentioned the “zombie apocalypse” in a comment the other day.Not being a TV water or a movie watcher, I’m not even sure what that is or if there is such a thing but I prepare for many things, and some of them I feel are more likely to happen than others. It really doesn’t matter if there’s a 1% chance of something happening or a 60% chance of something happening. If it happens, and it affects you, you’re going to be 100% up that proverbial “you know what” creek if you’re not prepared.

How prepared do you need to be? Food for a week? Food for a month? Water? Medical supplies? Alternative cooking methods? That’s totally up to you. When we lived in MO, smack dab in the middle of town, in a fairly large house that was all electric with no fireplace and some pretty harsh winters, I was concerned about how we would stay warm if we had the occasion to try to survive long term in the winter without power. For four winters we talked about things we could do and about all we came up with was “lots of quilts”.  Here in Texas, we don’t have harsh winters, we have a fireplace and for as little as we need heat most winters, we have a lifetime supply of firewood.

What I prepare for may not be what you prepare for but all that matters is that you’re comfortable with your efforts.  I believe, and I don’t fault any one who believes differently, is that we should be able to take care of ourselves. If a disaster happens, be it hurricane, tornado, massive snow storm, or worse, we should be prepared to take care of our own selves and our families. I don’t believe that we should be sitting back waiting for the FEMA truck to come by with food and water. Yes, there are times when things happen that are so totally unforeseen, that outside help may be needed but for the most part, as a society, I believe we’ve become too dependent on a government that may be unable to provide the help when help is needed

The Prepping Challenge

The Prepping Challenge

Like with most everything in life, if we plan ahead and practice, we’re much better off when we have to face the real challenge so we’re going to have a prepping challenge here at Patchwork Times. It isn’t a competition, it is designed totally so we can learn from each other and improve our prepping skills. Here’s how I envision it will work:

  1. Except for the first one, the dates will not be pre-announced.
  2. There will always be exceptions, you may have plans for an event during the middle of our challenge, and it just doesn’t work for you. Just work around it.
  3. Each challenge may include a bit of a twist on the ordinary because we never know what we may face. For the “extra”, I will give you notice so you can think about how  you will plan for whatever scenario I dream up.
  4. Most of the challenges will last six days – Monday through Saturday. We’ll try to do it once a month. We may have so much fun, we add an extra one in every now and then. There will be a blog post with a link box every day during the challenge period, at the end of the day, and hopefully we will all post the successes, the obstacles, what we learned, what we realize we need to do differently and we can share and learn from each other.

Sound like something you might want to try?

The first challenge will begin on Monday, May 12, and will end on Saturday, May 17.  Later today I will post with some tips that might make it easier to get started. Since this is the first one and it was kind of sprung on you, we will do another one towards the end of May.

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Hmmm, sounds interesting (kinda) since I’m not sure what in the world you could be planning! LOL Preppers, prepared (wasn’t the Boy Scout motto “Be Prepared”? not sure, I wasn’t a Boy Scout), ready..everyone’s ready for whatever they feel they need to be ready for, hopefully.

    • We can always learn from putting our plans into action. I feel prepared but know there’s way more I could do.

  2. I’m afraid of tornadoes. A tornado hit my hometown when I was four years old, and from that experience I developed a respect of tornadoes.

    How do you prep for a tornado destroying your house? Any food and water stockpiled would be gone, and anything salvageable wouldn’t be available in the first day or two.

    It’s possible to pack a bag containing essentials for 24 hours, but a year’s supply of food wouldn’t help much.

    What would you do if a tornado flattened your house and shop? Could you be self-sufficient? Or do you not plan for that?

    • I plan for EVERYTHING I can think of. When we lived in MO, just 50 miles from Joplin, where one of the worst tornadoes in history hit, I had three friends who also believed in being prepared. All of them lived within about 20 miles of me, but in different directions. Since you’re familiar with tornadoes, you know that they can be very “specific” in areas they hit. My friends and I all agreed that we had each other’s backs. If a tornado hit my area, as soon as they could, they would either come and get me or at least get there and see what I needed and I would do the same for them. We all kept massive amounts of food/water on hand.

      We had an underground, 100% concrete (roof and four walls) corner in our basement that we felt was safe and we stored a lot, though not all, of our food there.

      The best solution is to have an underground safe room or a safe room that has been added to your home but if you can’t do that, have someone you trust . . whose home you can go to or they can come to yours.

      We cannot guarantee that everything will work as planned but at least there’s always a plan.

    • For the record . . I am terribly afraid of tornadoes. There was one in our town when we lived in Kentucky and the big one in Joplin when we lived in MO. There have been a few tornadoes where we live here in Texas.

  3. Fantastic!! can’t wait to see how this works…
    I believe in being prepared (I’m all electric and we have long power outages because of storms).
    I’m sure there are more things I can learn that will help.

  5. This is a great idea! I cannot wait to see what everyone is doing and how many new things I can learn from them.
    I seem to be thinking and doing more now than ever before.

  6. Sounds like fun. Count me in. I like to think that we are totally prepared and it will help me find the areas that we are lacking in. Thanks for doing this Judy.

  8. This sounds like a great idea! My DH and our kids (all adults now) have been working on different things to be prepared for whatever may come so I’m looking forward to this and learning more. Thanks for taking this on Judy!

  10. Thanks for doing this, Judy. I’ve let some things slide. This will help to keep me on task. I appreciate all your efforts and look forward to learning from everyone.

  11. Girl, you know I am in!! That is the week my 3.5 and 1.5 year old grandchildren will be visiting so I’ll do the best I can. Love ya for doing this it is so important for all of us.

  12. Where would you keep supplies like canned food and water if you didn’t have an underground storage space? I have a garage, but it gets incredibly hot in the summer months, so not sure it would work..

  13. I am really looking forward to this. I hope to get to learn a lot from all of you. Thank you for doing this, Judy!

  14. Oh my goodness! Have you read One Second After by William Forstchen? I made the mistake of reading it when I was pregnant. Some blog somewhere online recommended it, and I was in need of reading material… That book scared me to death!! (Probably no help that my hormones were completely screwed up.) After the baby came, my paranoia calmed down a bit, but it still got me thinking. I’ve been trying to move us a bit more towards being prepared ever since. I still have a very long way to go, but we’ve made a start. Not sure how many of your challenges I can successfully complete, but I can’t wait to hear all about them!

  15. Sounds great! I live 50 miles south of New Orleans. This will help me prepare as hurricane season begins in a month. Thanks Judy!!

  16. I love the idea! I think it is a good thing to be as self sufficient as possible. Really would like to try the solar thing, but I’m not sure how it would work here in the NW edge of the country. It is so overcast so often. Wind seems tricky. Like the sun sometimes here sometimes not. Diesel generators are a good idea for us. We always have a truck in the yard filled with several hundred gallons so that is one option for us.
    I will love seeing all the ideas that come out from this. I will want to try a few!
    Never stop learning 🙂 is my motto. I think this will be a valuable learning experience.

  17. Don’t forget Prep Fairs! Many places I know have them, and it’s a great source of information and networking. The Knox County one a couple of years ago had a lady from Utah who was SO organized and had her ENTIRE neighborhood organized – everyone had a job for once the weather or whatever emergency was over, and they had colored cards to put in their windows, signaling various things to the neighbors. Also, Food Storage Made Easy has a lot of checklists and baby steps starter ideas. You don’t have to agree with everything they say in order to find a lot of good information to use.

  18. Does anyone really think there would be a zombie apocalypse? Sometimes things go too far.

    • It was said as a joke. I can tell you that not many years ago, I didn’t think things would be in the state they’re in now so I’m not ruling out anything. Prepare for the worst and hope for the best and . . lighten up.

  19. I am “light” enough just trying to see things ad “reasonable”.

  20. I love this idea Judy. When Huuticane Ike came through Owensboro in the fall of 2009, I truly believe it was God’s way of tryimg to prepare us for the Ice Storm of the Century in the winter of 2010. We were left to defend ourselves. My inner survivor (that I didn’t know I had) kicked in. I won’t go into detail, but I am looking forward to learning more about how to be prepared.

Discover more from Patchwork Times by Judy Laquidara

Subscribe now to keep reading and get access to the full archive.

Continue reading