Hi Roland, It can get harder to move and exercise as we get older. It’s nice that we can take our exercise a few minutes at a time if we need to. Five minutes of exercise adds up throughout the day. What worked for me was to find things to do that I enjoyed. I didn’t think of it as exercise, but thought of it as having fun. Most of my exercise is walking. I like walking in nature and seeing all the wildlife. There are lots of birds and deer here. Oh, and one really cranky beaver in the bay area of the lake here. He was out there today, slapping the water with his tail. I couldn’t figure out what got him riled up, but he was making quite the noise. Maybe one of the pelicans landed too close to him.

Seasons4,  I can see it now: the new medical alert bracelet for preppers.LOL I like your idea of using two different levels of exercise classes on Zoom, and substituting movements between the two classes as required. I also find the challenge of being a self-contained person is avoiding isolation as I age. Your Dodgeball analogy is a great way to describe it. In retrospect, I can see how I grew to consider music, books, writing, nature and companion animals as my friends.

Hi Gideon, This is amazing – as I was working outside today, planting the vegetable garden, it occurred to me that prepping has benefits beyond being prepared for an unknown future event. I read your reply and there it is! You articulated what I was ruminating about today. Your prepping mind set and background was the training ground for surviving your “personal disaster” (great term btw). The prepping lifestyle can help for coping with the threat of a personal disaster (rumors of job loss for example. Having a pracical prepping mind set could help reduce the stress.  I used to think it was martial arts training that kept me disciplined and on tract with certain aspects of life, but are reading your post tonight, it is clear that prepping is a great influence on our lives as preppers. Thank you very much for that insight.

Hi Isabel, Forgot to add white and whole wheat flour, large boxes of baking soda, and baking powder. The flour is kept in large food grade plastic drums with tightly sealed lid. The food is protected from insects and moisture. I plan to buy a Country Living Grain Grinder with Oat Roller and eventually will only stock sealed pails of different varieties of wheat and oats. Fresh flour and rolled oats are nutritionally better and taste better also. One caution regarding large or bulk items that I mentioned on another thread. Be careful of large containers of an item where you take small portions out of it for use. I purchased a large container of mustard, took some out for use upstairs and closed up the big plastic drum like container. It had a white plastic screw top lid. When next I needed mustard, I was shocked to see mould on the inside of the plastic lid. The mould was growing on the cardboard liner inside the lid. I would have never thought to check for that especially with something like prepared mustard.

Hi Isabel, We store what we eat on a regular basis. For us it isn’t “special” food for the most part. So for us, “living off it for a month” is our normal diet. We try to eat healthy. The only items I can say we don’t eat regularly are the lard and shortening. I love to bake but husband is a type 2 diabetic, so I have reined in the baking, although I do bake whole grain bread. The biggest thing I plan to change is the freeze dryer.  Here’s what I keep in storage:  I store canola, olive oil, lard and shortening which replaces butter or margarine as a fat source. I think my canola container is 28 litres and the last one lasted me five years. Fat is important to store as our brains don’t function well without it. Normally lard and shortening aren’t the healthiest fats to use, however, in a protracted crisis, increased labor and physical demands will burn off the fat consumed. I store frozen and dehydrated vegetables and am going to switch to a freeze drier for longevity. Currently, fruit is canned or dried. I keep raisins, prunes, applesauce, pineapple, peaches and fruit cocktail on hand. Frozen blueberries and strawberries as well. I use and store Vitamin C also. Meat sources other than meat in the freezer are legumes and canned tuna. With the freeze drier, I will be able to freeze dry beef and chicken. For now the legumes and tuna are sufficient. I keep protein stack on hand also. I have considered keeping dried eggs but there are some risks with them. I may keep dried eggs later depending on storage time. There are many recipes that don’t require them for baking, so the only reason I would keep them is for the protein. Cereal is covered with old fashioned large flake oats. I also keep flax, wheat bran and wheat germ. Rice is mostly brown rice although I do stock white rice. I prefer the nutrition of brown rice. Some say it goes rancid but I have never had that happen. My basement is very cool and good for storage. I have yeast, but if there was no yeast, I could do sourdough starter (which does require a new yeast starter batch with time). There are many unleavened breads which can work well also. There are tinned and powdered milks stored. I also stock iodized salt, other salts, pepper, hot sauce, chicken and beef boullion, spices, herbs, condiments etc to prevent food fatigue. Sugar sources are maple syrup, white and brown sugar, raw honey, molasses and blackstrap molasses. I think that’s most of it other than the non-food items, toiletries, etc. I hope this helps.

Hi Gideon, The spinal cord injury you suddenly sustained is a clear example of how quickly our lives can change. As I read your reply, I considered the scope of what you had to change in order to adapt to your new circumstances. Sometimes the people we meet have adapted so well to their changed circumstances that we forget how much adjustment and grief was necessary to do so. It takes every ounce of a person’s ingenuity and resourcefulness to find ways around things. Not everyone who faces a life changing accident is capable of this, but your reply says it all: You persevered, you learned “alternative routes” and figured out “ways to get around things.” You didn’t let the multitude of things you had “to consider and plan for” stop you from living your best version of your life. The soldiers in the documentary can draw down on their military training to help them navigate their changed circumstances. I am glad that you told us about them in your reply, and because of that, I will remember their sacrifice today. I will also remember you Gideon, and how you met the challenge of a spinal cord injury with courage, grace and incredible resourcefulness. What you wrote today helped me and others to understand the challenges that spinal cord injuries bring to a person who has acquired one. Thank you very much for sharing your experience. It will help many people to perservere.

Understood. I wouldn’t grow apples either if I lived in the south. I would grow peaches, acres and acres of peaches. Applewood is good for smoking bacon and other meats.

Good evening Bob, I made the same error. It was King John. The Magna Carta failed after civil war broke out and King John failed to honor his obligations under the Charter. Animal Farm is a great book. You can still see it played out today, just with different characters.

Hi Roland, Glad you enjoyed the “BOB” line 🙂 What you said about needing to rely on others got me thinking. If we look back at our lives, pretty much all of us have had to rely on others for some things throughout our lives. So, I guess that is part of being human at any age. LOL on the “get off my lawn you whipper snappers!” moments. I’ve been there but with a broomstick banging on my gutters to scare off the pigeons next door. The noise sounds like a gun going off. I don’t want to know what the neighbors think right now. I can only imagine. LOL I wonder if there are others in your neighborhood who feel the same way about being lost and forgotten, but have never spoken to anyone about it? 

Well said Redneck! May your and Mrs Redneck’s years ahead be happy and productive. You have worked hard to achieve your goals and may you enjoy many wonderful years.  Regarding the apple trees, are you able to trade them with a nursery or other person who gardens for other trees or plants?

Good afternoon Bob, Hee Hee! Good one on stopping for pizza enroute. LOL I appreciate the tip on switching to hatchet over ax. I wasn’t thinking about that yesterday with that post pounder. It was too much fun using it. They have gas powered ones, but the manual pounder was great. King James understood that peers are our equals. People who invest of themselves in helping others are too busy to notice these things. Unloading trucks is a tough slog and not worth your back getting hurt. Age is a state of mind and I refuse to let the opinions of others change me into something I am not. “Age is not important unless you’re a cheese.” – Helen Hayes

Pops, Great Neil Young quote…yeah, I know the lyrics to his work too, also referencing my age LOL. Town living is not working for me either, however, it is hard to find acreage here. We had a lot of out of country investors buying up farm land and that drove the prices up. I still look for acreage and hope that there might be something. The way prairie towns are dying out here, a person could just buy up a vacant village and call it acreage. There are few such places I’ve encountered in my search, but I didn’t want the location. I have been building time lines in for the reno work on my current home. This item will last x amount of time or the house will need repainting in x amount of years. If I finally find an acreage, the same will apply. It’s hedging against the age futures market (groan such a bad joke). Ubiquitous (good one LOL). Prepping is indeed everywhere and in all facets of our lives.

Thanks Pops! Your story and the evolution of your prepping is very well told. The way you have described it helps myself and other preppers understand how prepping is part of our life’s journey. That journey is enmeshed with a greater history and your examples of historical events and how they affected your prepping can also help others. Fracking has left problems up here, contaminated water being one of them. We can solve energy issues, but I hope it is without the proprietorial aspect that is evolving with some of the technology. I agree that the threats won’t be from the “Overnight Armageddon” variety. My leaning is environmental shifts and our ability to adapt. I think that there will be some social unrest from the financial implosion due to over consumption and returning high interest rates on the heels of Covid and how it has affected the economy. However, my feeling is that the social unrest will come in the form of quiet desperation and burnout. Simply put, I think people are world worn and weary now. There are many islands instead of community. My Dad survived the Great Depression and he said: Stay out of debt and cash is king referencing tough times. Debt restricts what you can do in an emergency. The ability to barter skills is also helpful. Thank you for a great reply, much appreciated.

Hi Redneck,  “I plan on the event occurring at the worst possible time…at the end of the growing season.” That is an excellent point. If we plan for an event occurring at the worst possible time, then we cover our bases better. Up here you don’t care about storing more shoes and fancy things, it’s all about warm boots and storing the food 🙂 Learning about the climate differences has certainly helped me to understand gardening and food storage issues. The types of seeds I store are now changed also. I will be posting a seed thread later today or tomorrow after I seed again and get the rest of the garden beds done. (The fence got finished yesterday) There will be a list of seed that survived our crazy weather and what I did to protect them. The planting date will also be included. It’s not a huge list but in a separate post everyone can see it and maybe it will help them out. The vegetable and variety that was hardy enough to survive our recent weather might help other preppers find seed that will work for them.

Good morning Bob, You have experienced the aftermath of population influx and security issues post terrorism. External factors are a good point to remember re how we prep. The changes over which we have no control.  Your point about SIP and using preps and supplies in a different way than originally planned is also a good example of building flexibility into our preps. Understood re rx issue. I got ahead of that curve many years ago. I like the PVC DIY case for glasses and other items. It reminds me of the tube carriers constructed out of plant life by various tribes.