Food Self-Sufficiency: Reality Check

This book began as a prospective magazine article.  After submitting it I was told they liked the article but they sent it back to me and asked me to expand on it and to include sources for things like where to buy canning jars.  I had recently published a handful of books, mainly prepper fiction, and I got to thinking....why not expand the article into a booklet.  My "booklet" ended up being 68 pages, which seemed respectable enough to be published. 

I wrote this book because in the world of preppers and prepper forums and prepper magazines and prepper books, there was this mentality that a person could just go along in life and that if the "SHTF" there was an easy way out:  Just plant a garden and maybe get a few hens for eggs". 

Anyone who has started a garden from raw land knows there is a lot more involved than just turning the dirt over and poking some seeds in it.  But these dreamer-type preppers couldn't be convinced that there was much to it at all. After all, everyone used to have a garden, it can't be that complicated. 

Never mind that it takes months for those seeds to produce a harvest!  And never mind that if you get a BIG harvest you need a way to preserve it.  And if the "SHTF" you're going to want a BIG harvest!  So I'd ask "how are you going to preserve it?"  Most would say "I'd can it".  Then I'd ask how many jars they had.  Most would say "a few dozen", some said "none yet", and some didn't even have a canner.  They said it shouldn't be hard to borrow one.  But they might be surprised, and I know that if the SHTF they aren't likely to find anyone willing to give them jars.  Plus there's canning lids to think about!

Same with "get a few hens".  How are they going to feed them if the SHTF?  I know they're picturing these happy little hens free-ranging around their yard, happily going back to the coop to lay a pretty little egg, then back out for more foraging.  There's always table scraps that can be thrown to them, since chickens are good garbage disposals!  But!

What happens when winter comes and there's nothing to forage for?  Funny how most people never had an answer for that.  They just got vague.  And it's really important to know this stuff when planning to move to the country, or to put in a garden or get chickens or other animals.  My book isn't all about gloom and doom, it's real life information that should be a "must have" on everyone's homestead or prepper book shelf. 

I have to admit I didn't have a very good attitude when I started writing this book.  I was about at my limit with "fairy-tale preppers", and I had to tame it down a bit when it came time to edit the book.  I had hoped to reach people with some numbers based on reality so at least they knew what they were getting in to.  It's great when someone wants to become more self-sufficient, but blocking out reality is not going to do them any favors down the road.

The cover photo was taken in my garden.  That's a decorative windmill from Harbor Freight, and the pine trees outside our garden fence, at dusk.

 

To see the book on Amazon:

 

Food Self-Sufficiency: Reality Check

 

 



Poverty Prepping: How to Stock up for Tomorrow when you can't afford to eat Today

I wrote this book with a friend in mind.  Her husband had been out of work most of the previous two years and was currently traveling out of state for work.  We met, along with a couple of other ladies from our neighborhood, to talk about prepping and food storage, and to share ideas.  After a lovely few hours of chat and tea and cookies, I headed home.

During the night I was mulling it around in my head.  Being among the financially-challenged segment of society I knew what it was like to barely keep food on the table, let alone have some put back for 'later'.  She, like us, worked hard to grow a garden in our hostile climate of northwestern Montana, and also had a few laying hens like us.  Her husband hunted but that's a deer a year, maybe two or more some years, depending on whether we have "B" tags in a given year.

Like many people I tried to buy extra when things were on sale.  I figured the price per pound on things like bags of flour, sugar, and rice and bought what was cheapest per pound.  I used to think the 25-lb. bags were always cheaper, but that isn't so.  If I had a dollar or two left I bought cheap bottles of spices, like cinnamon or garlic powder, thinking that if nothing else, they might be valuable trade items.

At the same time I had my friend on my mind, one of my sons had moved to his own place in town and he didn't have much food on hand and didn't see any reason to.  After all, he lived in town now and worked at a grocery store, so he figured he could just buy what he needed as he went along.  The first time that practice became a 'hardship' for him was when it was his day off and he didn't want to have to leave his house and go get food!  The weather was crummy and he just wanted to stay in, but he didn't have anything, not even crackers, that he could much on!  Yes, I was a bit smug, I admit that!

Of course I used this as a spring board to preach to him the wisdom of keeping at least a few staples in the house.  The next time I visited him we went and got crackers and pop tarts and a few other things and filled a small plastic crate.  For a while I reminded him to rotate them out, but then life went on and got busy and I bet the food in that crate is a few years old now!  I'm sure the pop tarts are still fine....  Ha ha!

So anyway.... I woke up the next morning after thinking about her and thinking about my son, and I started writing the book that would become "Poverty Prepping".  I had tons of things I wanted to say but the difficult thing was organizing my thoughts and putting them into a book that would make sense.  I knew the ideas would seem simplistic to many people, but I also knew a lot of people who would appreciate it and "get it".  And I was right.

For months after the book was published I got emails every day from people thanking me for the book, and that it helped turn on the light for them, regarding how to get started.  Just getting started seemed to be a stumbling block for many people.  Despite all the criticism from people that it was full of "no brainer ideas" or that the foods I suggest a person store were all the wrong things (junk food if necessary, just to have something for a few days or a couple weeks, which wouldn't totally ruin someone's health.), the praise for the book far surpassed the negative comments.  The book sold more than 20,000 copies in the first 6 months. 

I started the poverty prepping blog ( Poverty Prepping Blog ) as a place to expand on the information and ideas in the book.  I wanted to provide a no-cost place where people could learn more about prepping when you don't have a lot of money to buy the fancy long-term food storage items, and where people could ask questions or leave comments.  Literally hundreds of people have written to me in the few years the book has been published, and sometimes it's been hard to answer everyone in a timely manner, but I've appreciated every email.  I've made a few new friends along the way too.

The cover photo was taken at a small country grocery store near our house.

 

To see the book on Amazon:

 

Poverty Prepping

 

Tale of Two Preppers

One of my hobbies is reading other people's blogs about their lives.  I like to seek out blogs for people who have lives very different from mine.  So I search for people in cities, or in other geographical areas, mainly in the United States.

I came across the blog of a man in New York City.  He was married but they had no children.  They lived in a high-rise apartment building.  I wondered if life in New York City would be like they show in the movies, and in this case, it did turn out to be similar.

This man's world revolved around the people and shops within a few blocks of his own, plus those around the building where he worked, about 20 blocks from his apartment.  The only time they traveled was when they took the train to visit relatives.  They didn't keep food in their apartment and often he commented about having to run out to get something because he was hungry.  Fortunately for him, some places were open very late. 

I left a comment on his blog a few times and asked what they do if a bad storm takes out the electricity and at first he denied such a thing had ever happened.  When I pressed it and asked about some of the snow storms that struck there over the years and many were without power, he said it had not happened to them, but he had a few co-workers that had gone without electricity for a few days.  He didn't know what they did about it.  Some took time off work and others just complained a lot.

Then I asked if he had thought of stocking up a few things in their apartment in case a bad storm did take down their electricity and he insisted it probably would never happen and that it would be silly to buy food just to store in the cupboard.  He said that it would go stale, and how would he know it would be fit to eat if something did happen.

I didn't think we were getting anywhere but then one day he made a post about buying a box of crackers to keep in the cupboard.  He said it was because he was tired of getting home with his take-out and not finding crackers with his soup.  Then he made the comment "and besides.... you just never know what might happen".  He put a smiley there and I can't help but think it was directed to me. 

Meanwhile, I was browsing in my brain for ideas for another prepper fiction book and I thought about him and his wife.  I let myself imagine what could happen if a bad event happened, but I decided not to leave them totally unprepared.  Just to spite him (in jest, of course) I had his wife discover prepping first, and I had him only get on board after hearing a couple of other guys talking at work.

When the 'event' happened in this book they at least had a few supplies and a little bit of knowledge.  I had them hole up in their building and then make their way out of the city.  Most of the things that happened to them as they traveled among debris of a devastated city were things I had not planned.  They just wrote their way out of my fingers and I elaborated on them. 

Near the end of the book a character named "Marty" appeared, and by the end of the book I had written several side plots in my mind for this character.  I hope someday to write at least two more books involving Marty and what he does, and also including things from his past to explain more of what makes him who he is.  Marty has gotten a favorable response from readers who have also suggested writing another book with him as the main character.

I considered a sequel centered around what happened next for "Jeff" and "Jeannie" but it seemed too tame.  I prefer to have my characters on the move and facing the unexpected.

When it came time to pick a title I was drumming my fingers and mulling it over, trying to think of a good title for a story about two preppers, and "A Tale of Two Preppers" jumped into my mind.  At first I wanted to save the title for a possible other book I could write that might work off the basic storyline of the classic book titled "A Tale of Two Cities".  But when no other title seemed as good I went with this one just so I could get the story out there.  I initially posted it as a free prepper story on a prepping forum, before it became a published book.

The cover photo was taken from a bridge over the Chicago River in Chicago near Union Station.  I was on a layover between trains on the way home from the cross-country bicycle trip that inspired my first book, "The Long Ride Home".  Later when I needed a 'city picture' for the cover the pictures from Chicago were best suited for it. 

 

To see the book on Amazon:

A Tale of Two Preppers

 

 

The Rally Point

This book was written after "The Long Ride Home" but takes place during the same time.  "The Long Ride Home" follows 'Sue', who is basically me, riding my bicycle across the country after an EMP, trying to get home in a country that is just starting to realize things have changed...maybe forever.  "The Rally Point follows my husband, kids, and grandkids during the same event, as my husband prepares for everyone to arrive, and the kids and grandkids bug out to our homsestead. 

At the time I wrote this book all of the kids lived within 75 miles of our place in NW Montana.  All but one had moved to "the city" (Kalispell) to get jobs.  One had been lucky enough to get a job at a golf course.  He was 20 years old and still living in our home at that time.  Now he's married and lives in a small town 18 miles from us. 

This son, who went by the name of 'John' in the book, didn't need to "bug out" because he was already at our home.  I needed some adventures to write into the book for him, so I initially planned to have him go after one or more of his siblings that needed help to get to our place.  Then I thought about him being on the volunteer fire department and Search & Rescue and decided to put a couple of scenes in where he was called out in that capacity, in a SHTF scenario.  One of those scenes, the chemical truck accident, still brings tears to my eyes when I read it.  I suppose an author shouldn't admit that about their own work! 

Another son went by the name 'Charlie' in the book.  He, too, wasn't married, so I wrote in a girl that he meets as he bugs out and brings along.  I tried to keep the characters close to the real kids in what they liked, how they lived, and what jobs they had.  'Charlie' is an anime fan and collects swords, and I made the girl half-Japanese, and had him carrying a Katana on his back, which the real-life young man would do. 

When I started talking to the family about this book I told them to think of what names they would like to be called in the book.  Those that didn't provide a name ended up being called by their middle names.  The kids and grandkids were excited about the book and I talked with each of them about what they pictured if they had to bug out to our place.  It was a good learning experience for them to think of it as a real situation and plan it out.  Some almost hung over my shoulder to see what I wrote about them, others wanted to wait until I was done to read it. 

My husband chose the name "Walter".  He's a funny and somewhat crotchedy.... like the Jeff Dunham ventriloquist dummy by that name.  It was Mr. Dunham's early years when he first "got big" and he was less vulgar.  So if you look him up now to see who I'm referring to, you might find newer content with more bad words.  Still funny though.  Anyway, we had a name for him now.  If our place was as organized as I wrote it to be in the book, it might be true that my husband could actually find the things to make chili and other things I had him doing in the book!  But alas, every time I get something organized I have to dig for something else and usually make a bigger mess. 

The kids that had horses in the book, have those horses in real life.  The ones with bicycles or other things, have those in real life.  I wanted this to be something they could actually do if a bad event ever really did happen.  I also worked some of their personalities into their characters.  At least, the way "mom" sees it!  If they're like I was when I was their age, they probably hear me talk about them and wonder who I'm talking about! 

One of the hardest things was trying to get the timeline to be similar to the "Long Ride Home" book.  Obviously it would take Sue pretty long to ride a bicycle from central Mississippi to northwest Montana.  But it would only take a couple days at most for the kids and grandkids to make it their short distances to our house.  I had to work with passage of time issues, and as a new writer I felt like I had a bumpy journey there.  This was only my second book.  At the time I never thought of it as something I would publish for sale.  It was going to go up alongside the other book on the preparedness forum I belonged to.  So I didn't feel as much pressure to be 'professional' as I wrote it.

I like how I tied the ending of both books together in each one.  Sue arrived at the cabin and was surrounded by family in the yard at the end of both books.  Sue and the traveling companions she had ended up with had happened across a wrecked Pepsi truck and salvaged several cases of pop.  In "Rally Point" Charlie and the girl had happened across a Frito-Lays delivery truck with a mortally wounded driver and salvaged several bags of chips.  I thought that was a nice touch.  Most preppers have stored up foods essential for survival, and some are very serious about nutrition.  But what a lot of us will really miss is the junk food.  Pop, candy bars, and chips.  We can make cookies, cakes, and pies.  But a can of pepsi, a Hershey bar, and a bag of corn chips will be gold after a year into a real SHTF situation.  Though I could be wrong.  We might all just be glad to still be ALIVE at that point.

When I can sink my mind into my stories and BE my characters I do my best writing.  It's not just thinking about what I would do in their case, it becomes me doing that.  I had to find a middle ground of being my characters, and yet letting them be their characters.  How do they think and act?  What would they say?  How do they treat each other?  Those are the things that would bring the individual to life.  I wanted the kids to like how I presented them.  I wanted them to like the dialogue I placed in their mouths.

I feel like I really captured some of their personalities.  Rose would be the worrier making sure her brother, Charlie, really did get out of town, because Charlie, being who he is in real life, would be the one who would not leave town until he made sure the other siblings were all on their way.  And at the cabin when Aemelia's son was standing at the table while they made pancakes and without turning she asked him what he had in his mouth, the boy swallowed the dried huckleberry (like a wild blueberry) and said "nothing", while thinking "Mothers!  How do they know this stuff"!  I thought that was very telling.  My kids might be 'other people' that I would barely recognize when they're away from me and around their friends, but they still have certain things to their personalities that they are defined by in their behaviors.  It was easy to write some of those things into the book. 

As I wrote the accounts of their fictional journeys up to our house in a world whose civilization and order was rapidly deteriorating I tried to put in adventures and challenges for them to deal with.  I tried to use their actual talents, skills, and hobbies to create their book characters.

I toyed with a third book to tie the first two together and complete things, but I couldn't think up enough action for it.  They would all be "bugged in" at the homestead and it would basically be every day life of gardening, preserving food, cutting firewood, making sure we were all safe in our remote neighborhood.  There could be scenes of outsiders trying to come in among us, or accidents or grizzly bears (it IS grizzly bear country up there!), but it still didn't seem exciting to me.  I have found it easier to write books that have people on the move.  I may still write the book, but I have a lot of others in line that I would like to write first.  Some are sequels to my other prepper fiction books.

Another thing that makes it hard to think about the third book is that the life situation has changed for nearly all of the kids.  'John' is married now.  Joyce has moved to another nearby town and has two more children.  Rose is married to Alan now and they have two sons.  It would be hard to leave those people out but they don't have a place in the book either.  I could do it, but I'd have to get in the right mind set to not include these wonderful additions to our family.  I could have 'John' meet his future wife in the third book, but I can't pop those four other grandchildren (belonging to two different daughters) into the book unless it covers a long period of time.  And maybe I think too hard? 

I could not think of a title for this book. A  friend in Canada named it "The Montana Homestead" when we put it on the preparedness forum.  But when we published it we wracked our brains for a more fitting title.  We finally settled on "The Rally Point", which I don't think really tells the reader much about the story they're about to read.  Maybe someone will come up with a really good title someday that just fits right in with the story.  Usually the title for a book I'm writing just settles in my brain and makes itself at home, but not this one.

Here's the original cover for the kindle version.  I'm not sure why it's fuzzy.  I copied and pasted it from Amazon.

 

Here's the cover for the print version of the book:

Here's the link if you would like to look at the book on amazon.com,

or to buy the book:

 

The Rally Point: Bugging Home