Hey there, it’s Gubba and welcome back to the Gubba podcast! This podcast addresses topics like homesteading, prepping, food storage, and everything in between. Today I want to share with you what I’m doing right now to get prepared in hopes that you can think about your individual situation, assess your needs, and start preparing now too.
What do I prepare for?
First, let’s dive into the question of – “What am I preparing for?” The answer to this question will vary from person to person because everyone has individual circumstances and needs.
For example, someone may prepare heavily for hurricanes because hurricanes frequent their area. For me, I won’t do hurricane prep because I will never see a hurricane where I live.
I say never, but who knows with how weird the weather and world are. Maybe there will be a hurricane in the mountains one day.
What kind of emergency should I prepare for?
Anyway, I would suggest you ask yourself what kind of emergency situations are prone to your area. Does electricity go out often? Do you experience flooding? Fires? Is job loss a concern to you?
Once you hone in on what kind of situation is prevalent to you and your life, then you can begin making a game plan for you and your family.
How do I prepare for electricity going out?
I will use myself as an example – I live on a farm near the mountains. I take into account that electricity may not always be reliable, so I prepare by having heat sources available to me, so I can heat my house if electricity goes out.
I already use wood as my primary heat source, but I ensure that I have all of the tools to do so. I have a Mr.Buddy heater, an abundance of chopped wood, and blankets galore.
In my prep pile, I have flashlights, headlamps, batteries, candles, lighters, and matches. I also think about how my food in my fridge and freezer will go bad if the electricity is out for a long time, so I make plans to transition my food out of the freezer to my pantry or rotate it into recipes each week.
I have kitchen tools that don’t require electricity to use. If you stocked up on canned food, but only have an electric can opener, get a manual can opener now! Do you see how you start thinking about an emergency situation such as electricity going out and address one need such as warmth and how the thought process continues to branch out?
Don’t be overwhelmed with prepping but just start in one area, address it, and move onto the next.
How to start preparing right now?
I wanted to dedicate this podcast to share how I am preparing right now, so you can get an inside feel to my emergency preparedness.
To start out, let me share my thought process for preparing, so you can have an idea of how I operate. So you all know, or if you didn’t, that I order from Azure Standard monthly.
They’re the largest independent food supplies in the US. I got an email from them saying they had a mysterious fire in their warehouse late at night. Immediately, my mind is like wtf?
A few years ago, my mind wouldn’t jump to weird conclusions but with the way the world has been progressing, weird conclusions seem to the norm. And I question everything I read now.
So, I begin researching and find out that there has been a plethora of other mysterious fires at food distribution centers. Sure, sure, maybe just a coincidence. But honestly, when you actually spend time putting things together, things generally aren’t coincidences.
So all of these events got me thinking about my food storage and what I need to work on because we have seen massive supply chain issues, and I don’t want to be tornadoed up in a food supply issue which with all this weirdness, one could maybe assume some more food supply issues.
Why is the government killing chickens?
And last week I got a text from my aunt asking how my chickens are and how lucky I am that I have chickens with the big chicken scare right now.
I don’t watch the news or read it so I asked what she meant and she sent me an article about how they’re slaughtering millions and millions of chickens due to an avian flu.
Me being me, I question: is it really due to an avian flu? Or does it go back to the mantra of– you control the food, you control the people. And yes this is true, doesn’t matter how much ammo you have stocked up on, you can’t eat ammo.
You control the food, you control the people. And sure I probably sound extreme to some people, but I do not care. I will never rely on the government as my savior.
I’m responsible for myself. And I’m sure if Kim Jong Un was slaughtering chickens to control the food supply, he would definitely publish on the North Korea news networks that it’s due to them having a flu definitely not for any other reason.
How do I learn how to garden?
So my thought process after consuming and digesting these events, is to look at my own food supply.
Yes, I have a food storage, but I believe gardening is an extremely important and necessary skill to have, so then once my food storage runs out, I can continue to grow food for myself.
You can garden anywhere and I even did a podcast discussing how, so if you’re interested definitely check that episode out. Yes, you can stock up on seeds but if you don’t know how to cultivate them in your climate and area, they are essentially worthless.
I guess you could sell or barter them, but being able to garden and grow your own food is priceless. This year, I’m doing a small garden and I have started some seeds and will be planting others directly into my garden, so this is helping me get an idea of how to grow my own food.
I would strongly and kindly encourage you to learn how to garden as well. It could be something as simple as a few herbs in your kitchen – it doesn’t have to be a full operation.
Just get your feet wet. It blows my mind that knowing how to grow your own food was common knowledge 100 years ago, and that knowledge that has been around for 1000s of years was lost in such a short amount of time.
Well, it’s time to take back what is ours and start becoming self sufficient again. And as I discuss how I’m preparing right now, I hope you guys are able to see how I digest information then apply it to my prep.
How to prepare for the wheat shortage?
Another example is recently I’ve read and heard a lot about the war in Ukraine affecting wheat and corn supply.
Again, I’m unsure on the validity of that. Is that something to fear monger, I have no clue, but in case it is genuine, I have been stocking up on wheat berries. I love to make bread and I use a lot of flour, so it makes sense to have wheat berries in my long term storage.
I purchase them in bulk from The Church of Jesus Christ of Later-Day Saints Bishop Storehouses, which you don’t have to be a member to purchase from by the way. And I also get wheat berries in bulk from Azure Standard. So when the news was dropping about wheat supply, both of these sources became sold out of wheat berries.
Now, I’m able to get them. But have you ever thought how much you use flour or you would use flour if you couldn’t get bread from the store? Flour is ground up wheat berries, so you will need a wheat grinder as well.
I purchased a Country Living Grain Mill which is a manual grain mill so then I can grind my wheat berries if I have no electricity. And there are electric grain mills, but I prefer to have tools that I can operate with or without power.
So I read about a possible event, I assessed my situation, and I properly prepared for it.
Another way I have been prepping is assessing my property and debating what animals to bring into the fold. You know my goal is to be entirely self sufficient, which would include having animals I can butcher myself.
To get to that point is a bit of a learning curve, so I am consuming knowledge and meeting people who are well-versed in the animals I’m considering to have join the farm.
Right now, I have nine Leghorn hens and one rooster. And this breed is a prolific egg-layer, so I’m counting on my chickens for my supply of eggs. To be entirely self-sufficient though I need to also grow and figure out a system for their feed so I don’t have to buy from the store.
And this system is actually in the works with indoor hydroponics but that would for another podcast. But I have my eggs covered, but I don’t have my meat covered yet, so the best thing to do is to source that out.
How do I grow my own meat without land?
Did you know that some farms even have farm shares where you can purchase an animal but they raise it and butcher it?
So you are supporting local farms, getting high quality meat, and you don’t even have to have your own farm. Right now, that’s my process of getting meat and I have experienced more benefits than just receiving high quality meat.
How do I support local grown food?
I have met amazing people through sourcing my meat locally who have been a wealth of knowledge to me and are like-minded individuals.
If you are interested in being self sufficient, I would suggest getting to know the people at your Azure Standard drop or doing farm shares.
You can even do farm shares for vegetables which is something I will be doing this year as well since my garden won’t be entirely up and running.
But as you can see, when you start small, your branches being to grow out and you start to dive into new areas. Don’t be overwhelmed with prepping but just take it piece by piece and watch your whole picture come together.
I promise you that you will feel so much better when you know you have a store of food ready to go in your own home in case you ever need it. Learn how to garden and you will feel the satisfaction when you watch your plants grow. I can’t explain it, but it is so neat.
At the end of the day, we all have individual needs and I would suggest to look around you and see what you need to prepare for. Also, take a look at the world and factor that into your preparations.
I’m not saying be consumed by it because that won’t make you feel good, but just be diligent and do your best. I hope you have a better understanding of how I process things for my preparedness.
And this is definitely now how you need to process things, but I hope it gives you a good idea of how to start and maybe some areas that need focusing in your household.
I wish the best for everyone and I want everyone to be prepared for any situation the best that they can be, and I hope that you have a most wonderful day.
Thank you so much for listening to this episode! And don’t do anything a Gubba wouldn’t do!
