"Failing to Prepare...Is Preparing to Fail." Leasons learned?

[chewybaca67]

"Failing to Prepare...Is Preparing to Fail." Leasons learned?

Hi, new here thanks for the invite.
instead of flexing any "I'm prepared for all" sexual organs, what have you learned from mistakes in preparing for various situations from camping, hunting to natural disaters etc. I'll start.

I grew up in Flagstaff, AZ during the 70's and 80's. We were pretty poor as my real dad drank himself to death and my ma' was a single parent who also started drinking heavily. Boy I tell ya' we lived in some death trap trailers at times. I would also always be staying at an Aunties house or staying with an Uncle, never really knowing why actually. But my point is my parents were shit for being prepared for....anything. There were times I'd go to sleep hungry as there was only booze in the fridge or food my dad would bring over when he was drunk that he dumpster dived for (His version of child support). Yep. It sucked. It's not like I wanted to be born in this situation.
However, my saving grace was my Navajo Grandparents. Grandpa was man of very few words and Grandma didn't speak English. Just Navajo. Anyway, as a child I would spend most Summers on the Navajo reservation in Arizona around the Greasewood area. It was my Grandpa's home. A sheep camp as back one of the only economies was livestock. So horses, sheep and goats were plentyful.
The house was a traditional Hogan made from logs and mud. The old fashioned way. But it was clean inside, lots of stuff now considered prepping neccessities, with a few small areas for personal items like comic books, battery powered boom box, drawing stuff, etc. It was never messy, even with 6 or seven people living in there everything had it's place. That was one of the first lessons I learned from Grandpa as he told me, and again he never really spoke too me too much, "Your room is like your mind. If it's full of clutter, then your mind will be full of clutter and you won't be able to think right. So pick up your area." He told me this one other time when I was about 19 years old right before I quite drinking booze.
Other things I learned, that were really just regular daily routines as there was NO Utilities. No running water, no electricity and no gas. Perishable goods would get stored in a 4 foot hole in the ground in the "shed." Natuarally, that stuff was used first. Dogs kept the coyotes away, or at least warned us if they was gettin' too close. I can't stress the importance of dry goods like beans, rice, powdered eggs and milk. These were stored high on shelves in the shed or inside the hogan if there was little left. This helped me get through college too. Trivbal scholarships at that time weren't exactly very generous. So when I was living in NM going to UNM in an apt. with roomies, I made sure the first thing I bought with any leftover money was beans, flour and rice. ALWAYS. It it made all the difference in the world for a struggling college student. In fact, it got me a few dates as my beans and Navajo frybread were always a hit with some of the local college girls. I guess that can be a neccessity too. So in sum, without adding too many stories, here's a list of what I learned to always have, because we never had it growing up, but I learned they really mattered on the Rez:
*batteries
*Candles
*Dry goods like beans, rice, flour, if possible the USDA Choice powdered eggs (which I really like actually) and peanut butter
*toilet paper....for reals. On the rez it's not like you can drive down to the local Come and Go mart and pick up a roll.
*5 gallon buckets for water for drinking, washing up, and cleaning/disenffecting. Their cheap too.
*Kerosine lanterns and heater....just be sure to have ventalation when using the heater.
*Basic medical kit. Geez, you guys know this already.
*Good well runing Lever action and hand gun. For coyetes and Skin-walkers. For reals.

Ooo! Gotta go. Hope to hear from others.

[tom mac]

good story... welcome

[Mac66]

Yup, good stuff chewybaca67

[David]

First, welcome to the board

Well, we grew up not far from each other, I was born in Tuscon back in the mid -60's. It's always amazing how various cultures deal with the day-to-day living. My wife grew up in the Middle East without modern utilities. They'd put their perishables on the window sill to keep cool/cold. Everyone had fruit trees and her family had chickens and such. They made the most of what little they had. Having lived in the Middle East myself while serving in the military I saw first hand the kind of life she had as a child growing up.

On my side, my grandfather grew up on a farm with 10 brothers and sisters during the depression. So they knew a thing or two about struggles. He was out hunting squirrel and rabbit with a single shot .22 rifle at the age of 8 to help put food on the table. Grandmother grew up in London during WWII so they often had it really rough. But she knew how to to preserves and all that sort of prepping which they simple called common sense saving for a rainy day.

Beans and rice are the preppers go-to staple for sure. In our case, we use a lot of lentils, fava beans and chick peas for the types of Middle Eastern meals my wife grew up with. I love Middle Eastern cooking!

[Bob]

Grand parents from depression. Dad on a farm and through WWII.

As a kid had a large chunk of land & garden (11 acres 1/2 wooded 1/2 clear). Our basic downstairs cupboard was full of canned garden goods and we always had a freezer full of fish or game. Mostly fish...

Since there were blizzards in eastern PA, and less grocery, which was a trip in rural communities, we were always ready for a month or more of stuck at home.

Lesson - get back to that.

[tom mac]

Still do canning here... not many people do, nor have the kitchen "pantries" like grandmom

[David]

Thought this was a good one to BTT.

[Bob]

*batteries
*Candles
*Dry goods like beans, rice, flour, if possible the USDA Choice powdered eggs (which I really like actually) and peanut butter
*toilet paper....for reals. On the rez it's not like you can drive down to the local Come and Go mart and pick up a roll.
*5 gallon buckets for water for drinking, washing up, and cleaning/disenffecting. Their cheap too.
*Kerosine lanterns and heater....just be sure to have ventalation when using the heater.
*Basic medical kit. Geez, you guys know this already.
*Good well runing Lever action and hand gun. For coyetes and Skin-walkers. For reals.

Ooo! Gotta go. Hope to hear from others.

That list just covered all of these:

Energy/Power
Light
Food - Basic dried stores
Hygiene
Fire/Fuel
Meds
Self protection

And obviously, you had water and shelter covered! How did they EVER learn that without YouTube!!!!! LOL

Welcome man. Sorry you grew up like that. But - no doubt you obviously learned some lessons. I grew up maybe two generations from people living that way so I was raised kind of soft...but I saw a lot of things that I'm getting back to.

Learning and the ability to do so - the most important prep. And we learn best from the hard lessons of failure!!!!

[Bob]

You know - we are in a quiet period. Lesson learned: Get ready now!