Johnny, you said:
“I’m not a prepper. Because of the economy, I have to live like it’s the mid 1800s.”
Actually, you are probably more of a prepper than 99% of us contributing to these prepper threads.
Your posts point out an aspect of prepping sometimes mentioned but sometimes overlooked in these discussions.
Prepping isn’t only about buying stuff.
It’s also about mental preparation and learning/honing skills necessary to live self sufficiently as much as practicable.
In fact, as I think about it, while food, water and other stores will be absolutely necessary in the short term following a disaster, knowledge, skills and tools will be more important in the long term.
After all - how many people can store enough food and water for their family to last 2 years, 5 years? 10 years? 20 years?
To most the closing down of supermarkets will be an immediate disaster.
To some preppers it may reach disaster levels only when their prepper stores run out.
To the self sufficient it may hardly be a bump in the road.
As far as learning skills for self sufficiency I’m finding it’s not that easy.
It is one thing to grow a couple of vegetable plants for fun. Or to hunt for hogs as a sport or for a little extra meat.
It’s quite another to grow enough vegetabls and other crops to live on between harvests. Or to bring home enough wild game to live on.
And then there is the need to learn the techniques and skills to safely store your food without electrical power, refrigeration, etc.
Yep. That's why I've been working my arse off in an 810 sq ft garden for one person. The tomatoes that come out of that will carry me to next year's harvest. I'm still using up jalapenos from last year's harvest. I don't have any of last year's oil, but I've still got lard from the pigs this winter. And I've still got cured and smoked pork that will last me well into summer.
But those things take time, and they take skillsets. They aren't hard to learn, but you have to learn it, and you have to take to time to do it. I've made most of my mistakes on that stuff years ago (even though I do manage to find new mistakes to make). I'm in production now, R&D is over.
/johnny