What’s Your Prepping Priority?

Preparing effectively for natural/man made disasters is more than just hoarding supplies, you must be organized and focused. Maybe you’re still in the early stages of preparation so it’s beans, bandages and bullets as they say, or maybe you are more advanced and focusing on training and developing new skills. Regardless of where you are in your journey, you need to have a plan that takes you to the next level.

Our priorities over the last year have been to maintain our level of supplies, while rotating effectively (first in first out), make the most of our gardens (eating healthy, canning and freezing), and improving firearms proficiency. Well, the results have been mixed. As far as the garden goes, I think we’ve done fairly well; canned lots of dill pickles and salsa, frozen green beans and okra as well as eating fresh from the garden at least once a week. We added additional raised beds and as of this writing we are still getting some fresh strawberries, okra, green peppers, banana peppers and basil. I will call this one a win.

I must admit that we have been neglectful when it comes to some of our supplies. We haven’t had much waste, but we haven’t replenished all of what we have used either. While our level of most items has remained steady, our cleaning supplies and some paper goods have reached fairly low levels and need to be addressed. It’s easy to get off track in some areas when you get overly focused on others; stay balanced. That being said, even with some areas needing attention, our bunker (basement) is beginning to look like a well stocked convenience store.

A big priority this year was firearms proficiency; if you have them you better know how to use them. Yes, I’ve owned guns for many, many years and considered myself a pretty decent shot, but in the current climate I felt the need to further hone those skills. I signed up for classes, studied hard, and practiced and practiced and practiced some more. I became a certified Range Safety Officer and NRA Firearms Instructor. I’ve participated in 5 shooting competitions with another in 3 weeks. I’ve continued to take more advanced classes and have another 2 day course at the end of the month. This is simply one of those areas where the better you get, the more you realize how much more you have to learn.

The weather is beginning to change; time to prepare for colder weather. I will be updating the ‘get home bag’ I keep in the car and making sure we are prepared in case of a winter time road emergency. Which means its probably a good time to go though my EDC bag (everyday carry) and do some updates. I was able to get the generator started, but it clearly could use some basic maintenance. I plan on purchasing a couple more 20 lb propane tanks and adding an indoor safe propane heater if finances allow. Oh yea, and get those cleaning supplies and paper goods restocked ASAP.

So that’s it for us right now. How about you, what are your priorities?