Category Archives: Goals

What’s for dinner?

suspect-clipart-food-storage-clip-artYou are right in the middle of this paragraph and the lights go out, your computer shuts off, phone won’t work, nothing electrical will do anything. That’s one scenario, how about something a little less dramatic. A winter storm knocks out power, or a hurricane, any event that has the ability to disrupt the power grid; how long will your food hold out? power-grid_662963fWe do have the benefit this time of year in the northern latitudes that we can use the cold weather to save perishables, but even with what you have in the freezer how much food do you have on hand? I think probably most people could make it a week or two, most in our community would be okay for up to 3 months, but there are a select few that could survive indefinitely. What makes these people different?

First, perhaps we should look at stockpiling food. We all have limited space to store food and provisions and I for one don’t want to live in a house that resembles the isles of a grocery store.food-storage-coxshoneyDOTcom A simple Google search for food storage reveals that anyone can purchase 1 year of dehydrated food for one person for less than $1500US. If you have the resources, this is probably a pretty good backup plan, but seriously who wants to live on dehydrated food for a year. Even if you enjoy the taste and consistency of dehydrated food, in the long run its supply is finite and will eventually come to an end.

The only way to survive indefinitely is to create an infinite food source. How do we create an inexhaustible supply of food? We do it through planning, knowledge and preparation. Storage, though important isn’t enough. To begin with we need to acquire the knowledge and skills of the common person 100 years ago. We need to learn how to grow our vegetables, hunt our meat, we need to know how to make cheese, preserve the food we grow, smoke and salt the meat we’ve hunted. food-storageWe need to learn how to live without refrigeration. Food storage is the way we will survive in the lull between harvests and should be done in a way that doesn’t depend on electricity. I’m not saying you shouldn’t keep fresh meat and vegetables at home or even frozen food, in fact I encourage you to do just that. The odds of the power grid going down for a considerable length of time is extremely remote. However, in the event that it does, we should be prepared and have a plan for it.

In my opinion a layered approach will work best for food supply. The above mentioned dehydrated food would be a good base. If one were to purchase, say a one year supply and use it as a supplement for a family of 4, so basically 3 months supply per person. dehydrated-foodThen another 3 months in canned and dry goods. Also a rotating one month supply of meat and 2 weeks rotating supply of fresh fruit and vegetables. Some possible additions are flour, sugar, oatmeal, honey and even a couple hundred pounds of wheat. This will get you by for 6-8 months.

As long as there are no disasters, you are now prepared for any short term emergencies that you and your family may face. In later issues we will go over gardening, hunting and other survival skills.

 

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New Year, Fresh Look

So… 2016 ready or not here we are! As I look to the new year and wonder what life has in store for me, I’m filled with hope and resolve. Resolve, because only victims leave their lives to chance alone and I will not be a victim! Hope, because no matter how prepared we are luck is always a factor! All of us should have a plan, then a backup plan, a contingency plan and an emergency plan for every situation we can imagine. That’s a lot of planning, well yeah… and like in a fight your main plan goes out the window the first time you get hit!

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I heard a saying many years ago and I don’t remember who or where I heard it but it’s kind of a mantra for me…

“If you continue to think what you’ve always thought, you’ll continue to get what you’ve always got”

Let that just sit and sink in for a second.

The only way to effect change in your life is to change your current paradigm, the way you think or see the world! If you smoke and want to stop… be a non-smoker! Don’t try to stop… In the immortal words of Robin Williams in The Fisher King, either do it, or don’t do it! Trying is just a pussy that can’t commit!

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Oh we can come up with all kinds of excuses to let ourselves off the hook! My wife, or my boss, or the promotion didn’t come through, or that professor doesn’t like me… WHATEVER! That is all victim mentality, somebody stopped me and I wasn’t strong enough to persevere! So what does this have to do with the new year? Start setting goals! But Dave I don’t do New Years Resolutions… Did I say make a new years resolution? NO! I said set goals! And Goals not written down are just dreams, and dreams are vague ideas that disappear in time. Goals on the other hand have a timeline and a plan… oh wait weren’t we talking about plans earlier? Just in case you aren’t a goal setter and haven’t ever done so, I’ll go over the way its done…

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First, identify your long term goal, with a timeline. Since we’re talking about survival… How about, I want to be completely self-sufficient in 10 years.

Next, identify what steps (3 to 5) will take you to the above long term goal and a timeline for each… I want to be off the energy and water grid in 5 years. I want to have a self sustainable food source with 6 months of food storage within 3 years. Within 7 years, I want to have access to a steady supply of meat in the event of a catastrophe. These are your medium range goals.

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Next identify what steps will take you to your medium range goals along with your accomplishment timeline… To be energy independent I need to research and identify 3 ways to produce energy this year, along with the feasibility of self maintaining these energy sources in the long run. Possible energy sources to be looked at are solar, wind turbine and water turbine. We will break down each of our medium range goals in this manner.

Finally, we set our “to do” list mile stones… How much energy do we consume monthly? This week, Identify from past electricity bills how much energy we consume. By months end fact find: Is past electricity use a realistic baseline for an emergency situation? How much energy is produced by one solar panel? Do solar panels come in different sizes? What is the cost per panel? Will the panels work during a storm or cloudy day? How do I store energy for use when the panels don’t produce energy?

In this last step we’re trying to find out how much we don’t know, how much we do know, what we need to learn and we want to assign everything a deadline. If you don’t meet your deadline, take a knee, do a reevaluation. What caused you to fail? Was your goal or deadline unrealistic? Was there an outside force acting upon your goal accomplishment? Can you reevaluate and realign your timeline?

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Above all, be honest with yourself!

Now go set your goals and make your plans! Have fun and we’ll see you next week…

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