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