Why I Do What I Do

Sometimes when I get on roll, I wonder about myself.  Is it "normal" to celebrate when I find chicken for $1.50 a pound?  Who gets excited about deciding to buy pool salt (99.8% pure!) in 40 pound bags for less than $5....not for pool use but for barter if the SHTF?  Who else in my life wants to learn the skill of starting a fire using sticks and nylon string? 

Yet I DO get excited when I see bottles of canned bacon lined up on my shelf.  I AM waiting for shredded cheese to go on sale so I can try canning THAT!  I get a thrill when I stuff dehydrated fruit into used glass jars and pump the air out with this nifty little gadget I picked up at a local expo.  And the simple fact is, I've always been like this.

When I was 10, we moved to a house in Virginia Beach.  The housing development still had a lot of building going on and so a lot of empty lots surrounded our house for awhile.  I discovered wild onions and picked them....Mom dutifully cooked them up for dinner.  When Dad brought home a #10 can of dried apples, I claimed the empty can and made a stove with it.  I can still see the fried bologna I cooked on it in my mind's eye.  My first garden produced precious little but my 11 year old self tended it carefully.  My dad taught me how to fish including how to bait my own hook AND to scale and gut my catch. 

I like the feeling I get when I increase my self sufficiency.  Deep down I know that all I have and all I am comes from God.  But rather than spend my time hitting a little bitty white ball around a well groomed pasture or shopping for just the right pair of still another pair of shoes, I choose to persue another interest.  And that interest just happens to be prepping.  I'm not a doomsday person.  I truly hope none of my preparations ever become necessary to use.  Still, I sleep better knowing that I've given myself and my family a cushion.  Our food storage will give us a little time.  More importantly, I'm going to learn to forage, to snare, to trap and to hunt.  Because I AM normal....just a normal, run of the mill prepper!