Why We Prepare

 Why I became a Prepper.

As a husband and father, I’ve always had it in the back of my mind that I need to make sure we are prepared for basic emergencies. Things like a temporary power outage or being stranded in the event your vehicle breaks down and you’re waiting on help.

In the Spring of 2015, we experienced a severe thunderstorm that knocked out our power for 3 days. It’s amazing how much we take something like electricity for granted, until you go through it for several days as a family of 4 plus 2 dogs. We made it through just fine, but it was more stressful and uncomfortable than it should have been.

But that event made me pause and think. What if the power outage had lasted much longer? A week or more? What an event occurs that results in a majority of the electrical grid being down for weeks or months? That would also result in the loss of your running municipal water supply.

I realized that we were woefully unprepared for most any prolonged natural disaster or any event that would result in the breakdown of basic services or law and order. This really peaked my interest, so I started researching this topic in earnest. Most people call it “prepping” and I had always thought of these people as a bit off, conspiracy theorists or ready to wear a tin foil hat. But the more I looked into it, I found that preppers come in all walks of life, styles, opinions and backgrounds.

I must say, in my research, I have found that there are some that fear monger too much and get carried away on one particular topic, like a possible economic meltdown, or nuclear war. I don’t believe this is very helpful, it’s like they are scaring people. I prefer a sensible and realistic approach. Let’s face it, if we get notice that a full nuclear exchange has just started, there is little we can do to survive that one! What can we do as just regular people to prepare for more likely emergencies? That is my goal here. And I will write on many aspects of what I have learned, from a realistic point of view and from being on a budget.

So again, why do we prepare? For me, it is for things like natural disasters like storms, earthquakes, floods (depending on where you live), prolonged power outages, being stranded on the road and pandemics. I mean, just look at what the world has been dealing with for the last year! How long did it take for the panic buying to ensue at the grocery stores? We are still seeing Covid lock downs all over the world.

The bottom line for me is as a husband and father, I take it as my responsibility to do all I can to prepare so my family has the best chance possible to survive.

So, if you are new to this kind of thing, it does not have to break your bank account to get prepared. There is a LOT you can do to get started and it does not take as long as you may imagine to get some basics in place.

Stick with me and hear what I have learned and experienced on my journey. I will never fear monger on purpose, but there are some scary scenarios that we must at least take some steps to prepare for. Again, look at what we have seen just in the last year!

Please share with me your thoughts and questions in the comments!