A POST FROM A READER

Good Morning Michael,

I have been up for a while, cooked the wife a nice breakfast and sat down and read through the dozen or so blogs I read. It doesn't take long with half of them not posting much new stuff for a few weeks. One hasn't posted anything since last February. I only care that I am not getting additional ideas and information to add to the mix so I can reach better decisions.

This could be way long, but I won't make it so. Salient facts are my mother-in-law blow a tire and it spent her spinning down the expressway. She crashed sideways into a guard rail and broke five ribs, a collapsed lung, bruised her lower side and had a two inch cut in her scalp. They were very concerned that her spleen was ruptured too. Wife, brother-in-law and I spent eight hours in the hospital with her until she finally got moved to her room and drugged up enough to rest. It was another personnel SFTH day. Oh yeah, local police gave her a $125 ticket for failure to control. Insult to injury if you ask me.

There were some lessons learned in this. As preppers we like to pride ourselves on being ready for a lot of stuff. If you take medication and you do not have a list of what you take and the doses with you and you get in an accident valuable time can be wasted while that information is gathered. It is a small item, but like ole Ben Franklin said, For want of a nail the shoe was lost. For want of a shoe the horse was lost. For want of a horse the rider was lost, being overtaken by the enemy and slain. Check the nails!

Before I got the call to rush to the hospital I was clearing brush along a fence line, opening the view and clearing up around a bunch of raspberry bushes. I love a handful of fresh berries, either on a bowl of cereal, or popped in my mouth. Not much sweeter can be picked and eaten like a raspberry. I borrowed my buddies chipper and I will chip all the brush up and make a mulch for around some of the areas I cleaned up to keep weed growth down. Some I will compost for the garden. The end result will be a great view of the fields and woods from the deck, and a clear field of fire.

My last few trips to the store I have made sure I bought more staple items. Picked up some flour, salt, spices, and oils. Every store I checked had rice, although it was always in small bags. Both of my sons showed up last night from college and they decided on a trip dumpster diving. Came home with a boat load of meat still cold from the store cooler and a case of Lunchables. Like I told you before, I don't worry about the boys too much, they know the basics of survival and how to apply them.

Thanks for "listening". I just needed to chat with a fellow prepper. I have been feeling over-whelmed lately and sometimes just listing a few things accomplished makes some of the pressure go away.

Stay Alive my friend, talk to you later.

Wolverine