Here's another story from a prepper who has been through some hard times:
"You asked about why/how we got into preparing. I grew up on a farm. My grandfather made it through the depression, and impressed the idea of stocking up on my father. On the farm, we raised 80% of our foodstuffs (eggs, chicken, milk, beef, vegetables, fruit, etc.) and went to 'the big city' shopping once a month. It was a major event: Items my step-mother refused to make (bread/rolls) and staples were purchased, often taking up two or more shopping carts. Not too many people thought much of it. There were eight in our family, including five boys and myself. Most people saw my five brothers and didn't think twice about it. After the shopping was done, we were allowed (so long as EVERYBODY behaved at the store) to stop at the Golden Arches before going home. Based on age, we got a small fry, a small soda, and one to four hamburgers/cheeseburgers. It was the only time we had soda and we all tended to suck it down like it was the nectar of the Gods!
I left the farm, and left that life behind. I was so happy to join the consumer nation, buying food as I needed it and replacing clothes instead of repairing them! Slowly, my excitement abated. To ease my 'fears', I began stocking up a little 'just in case'. My husband used to make fun of some of my habits, saying "Uh-oh, we're down to 24 rolls of toilet paper! You better run to the store for more!" "Why do you garden and can? I make good money, go to the store and buy it!". Well, he got laid off. Five and a half months later, he was still laid off. In his entire working life, he'd never been off for more than a month, so it was a shock. Once he realized my 'weird habit' of stocking up had helped us get through, he jumped on board with both feet! After going back to work, he encouraged me to set money aside each payday to buy extras to have on hand. My garden became a family project. Experiments with different crops became common, to see what grew best and provided the most in the least space. He built me square foot gardens, to test that theory. Canning was no longer scoffed at, and dehydrating was experimented with.
I feel like I've come *almost* full circle now, and I'm surprised to say I've never been happier. We bought a small property and now have chickens, cows and are about to get pigs. I bake all our own bread, cook 75% of our meals from scratch, have expanded the garden to just shy of four times the size I started with, we put in a small orchard and berry patch and hubby surprised me with a greenhouse this year. I am still addicted to soda (Ahhh, sweet nectar!), and shop more than once a month but, for the most part, I have returned to my past way of life; with my own twists. For example, I have a cell phone, internet, and satellite TV. Hey, some habits are hard to break!"
It was signed "CCWriter". Thank you for sharing this with us. It sounds like you had a great childhood and learned some good skills and habits! Hey, who doesn't have some kind of habit like soda! :)
I'm glad things are going better for you. Your small farm sounds really great. Good luck and best wishes!
One of the best things that has come out of this book is the emails I get from readers. Please keep sending them!
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