Nat Geo is having a Prepperthon today - one episode after another "Disaster Preppers".
As you may know, the expert evaluates each prepper at the end of every segment. I started thinking what he'd think about me and Ron.
I should back up a little here. I read an article on food storage recently, and the author, a typical stay-at-home-stand-by-your-man-wife-Mom-and-prepper, cheerfully advised me to "Make sure my husband has plenty of calories. He'll get hungry doing security patrols, and hunting for game".
I had to laugh. Ron can barely take out the garbage. He can't hunt. He can't patrol. He can barely get to the bathroom. I love him dearly, but in a survival situation he could only be seen as a massive liability. I quoted the line about hunting and security, and Ron laughed so hard he almost fell out of bed.
Can't you just see it, me pushing Ron on the wheelchair as he holds the cat carriers in his lap, "Bugging out" to our new location? I'd be shocked if we made it to the nearest freeway. Someone would shoot us and eat the cats. Probably us, too.
Which brings me to my liabilities: I don't drive. I don't shoot. I've never hunted, killed a chicken, or dressed game. I am extremely dependent on medication to stay alive.
Without my meds, I'm dead, and I'm probably taking you with me. I don't have any illusions.
Which brings me to my assets: I do know a little, about a lot of things. I've made my own soap, candles, and incense. I made my own homebrew alcohol (1994), and boy was it strong. I know a little about herbal remedies and have made my own tinctures, salve, and teas. I enjoy canning my own food. I have gardening skills and a small "seed bank". I'm not afraid of hard work. I'm fat, but in good overall health. I'd like to think I'm a good cook when it comes to basic items. I like working with small animals.
I have made a few preparations for disaster, which I don't reveal- "I'll just come to your house and take it" being the usual response. I may have brain damage, but I'm not an idiot. I learned to shut up "right quick".
An easy example: if you drink soda, rinse and fill the 2 liter bottle with water. Voila. That keeps you alive for a day in a grid-down situation.
You may know, on the show, the reviewer gives them a score between 1 and 100. I'd be shocked if Ron and I got a 20.
I wonder what things he'd suggest, things I could actually do. That would be interesting.
4 comments:
Security patrols? hunting game? Unless someone is married to a cross between Daniel Boone and James Bond, it's not likely most men are cut out for that. I don't know anyone man or woman that is ! Not only that,why does it have to be a man? In many societies, women were the hunters..and women now are police officers and are in combat in the army, so assuming it will be a man that does that stuff always burns me up!
I'd be useless with a gun. I'n afraid of them, and could never hunt..it would make me too sad. I know that I'm a hypocrite as I eat meat, but I couldn't do it myself.
You take into count your mental illness here but really you also need to consider your husbands angry detox that can include threatening seizures DTs if he is forced to have no alcohol for several days.
It may sound crazy but alcoholic detox is not o be taken lightly
Anonymous, pretty safe to say Ron has a hoard. I don't know how much, but if he even gets to halfway on the booze he runs out and gets more. I think he would be OK in a disaster situation with self-rationing.
He ate some bad takeout about a year ago, and was vomiting for a few days. He couldn't drink at all and seemed to be fine (I was keeping a weather eye out for seizures). Even after he was able to eat, he waited a few more days before drinking again.
I learned, from Al-anon, that it is useless to try to control or regulate his drinking. So, I don't.
The men in my family (and some of the women) grew up hunting, almost all the men and good many of the women have served in the military, including multiple combat tours. Patrols under all kinds of circumstances were one of their duties (not to mention the different skills required for gun hunting and bow-and-arrow hunting), so we're covered there. We also grew up, as I've mentioned, in the boondocks, and helping in the gardening was part of our chores-the ground prep, starting/sowing of seeds, weeding, harvesting. And oh the hours we spent-and there were ten of us siblings!-shucking corn or shelling peas. How we loved spending Saturdays gathering dried cow patties for fertilizer because it was the only time we could get away with saying "sh*t" (because it literally was that) , though our parents let us know when we were taking advantage of the privilege. And we girls did all this wearing below-the-knee skirts, LOL.
What I wouldn't give to go back to those days, cow patties, skirts, and all.
And Brother Lester Roloff is still my favorite preacher. What a wonderful man he was. I spent a year in his Bethesda Home For Girls, and after the intitial natural homesickness, I loved the peace and quiet sense of piety. I'd live in that atmosphere again in a heartbeat. Brother Roloff was one of the kindest, most unselfish men I ever knew, had the kind of sense of duty and integrity people just don't have anymore. I loved him, and I still love his preaching.(I listen to his old Family Altar Programs through podcasts).
I always loved his story of how once he felt called to preach, he put himself through Baylor with a milk cow named Marie, given to him by his father.
His delight in life was in reading and studying his Bible. I still use his motto as my inscription on my ipod and such--Habbakuk 2:4 The Just Shall Live By Faith
I also love his idiosyncratic singing style (having German heritage, he had a fine voice and could carry a tune, but his sense of phrasing was all his own, lol). I love his rendition of "Deeper Than The Stain Has Gone" and "When Jesus Came".
Sorry for the nostalgia kick, your post on prepping led me to thinking of how much of this we did in my youth but didn't know it was prepping, which led me to one of the biggest influences other than my parents in my life-Brother Lester Roloff.
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