[caption id="attachment_18370" align="alignright" width="300"]Baby Step Faceplant The struggle is real.[/caption] Remember that time when you were first learning to walk, when you took your very first baby step? Those were the times when…what’s that? You don’t remember? Oh, of course not. Silly me. Let me explain what it was like. You struggled, you fought for balance, and the next thing you knew…BAM! You’re on your face. Again. But that’s OK, you don’t need to feel embarrassed. I was the same way. So was every other human being that’s ever learned to walk. We start off on our hands and knees and slowly work up the strength to use our legs. But before we become proficient at it, we fall down, over and over and over. It’s a good thing little kids don’t know the meaning of the word "defeat," otherwise there would be a lot more adults crawling than walking. But crawling isn’t necessarily easier than walking, no matter what your kid-self remembers (or assumes to remember). Crawling is just the first step into a bigger world. Preparing for disasters is the same way. Daisy Luther from The Organic Prepper shared her story about how she went from newbie prepper to veteran status in her post entitled How to Prep When You’re NOT an Epic Wildernes Survival Guru. When she first started, she said she couldn’t even light a fire that would keep burning. She recalls a time when she first started out learning how to take care of herself from a survival standpoint. Nothing she did worked out. She lamented, “I broke things, froze wood to the wall of my cabin, shivered when the fire went out, freaked out when there was a bear on my porch, climbed out a window and dug my shovel out of the snow with cooking pots because I had left it outside and snow had blown against my door, burying the shovel and trapping us inside.” Yowzah! That doesn’t sound like a good time at all. But, as time went on, she improved. No matter how incompetent we may think we are, we can always improve. Big Journeys Begin With Baby StepsEverybody has to begin somewhere. Start slow. Baby steps. Do you have a flashlight? You do? Well look at you go! I bet you have some canned food in your cupboards, too. Go ahead, take a look…So, what did you Replace? Soup, beans, and chili, eh? Well what do you know…You’re a prepper and you didn’t even know it! You see, it doesn’t have to be hard. Without even trying, we’ve identified a few items you can use if an emergency happened tomorrow. But don’t stop there! Continue building your emergency supplies, little by little, every month. Buy an extra can or two of food while you’re out grocery shopping. It’ll start adding up, and you won’t even notice a huge difference in your bank account. It is good to remember, too, that canned food from the stores aren’t packaged to last nearly as long as our freeze-dried food, which is good for 25 years. That being said, you can still rotate through your older food by using it in your meals. Just remember to replace it if you do use it! No matter what your background is, or what your current living conditions or abilities, you can become strong in your emergency preparations. Preparing doesn’t have to be daunting. Just use baby steps until you’re sufficiently prepared…and then keep going! Because being prepared is a continual process. You can do it. I believe in you! How did you start off in your prepping? Was it easy? Was it worth it? Let us know in comments! Practice Your Prep
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6 comments

Linda Sand

Linda Sand

We started by going camping. We quickly learned that if you bring canned food it is a good idea to bring a can opener. :)

Julie Filips

Julie Filips

Built a electric ‘generator’ with a marine battery with power converter and trickle solar charger and put it on a kitchen cart. Last time our power went out (about 6 hours), we plugged in a lamp and a radio and spent the evening at home. Could barely tell we didn’t have power!

Jackson

Jackson

Due to living where we have hurricanes we started out keeping lots of canned goods,bottled water, some cash, medical kit, spare fuel. That led to prepping supplies of freeze dried/dehydrated foods, camping supplies-tents,sleeping bags, wool blankets, water proof clothes, fire starter, good supply of cut/split wood in a dry area, solar lighting,water purification. Now we are working on our own cistern and catching rain water to divert to the tank. It is a very long term never ending always learning plan. Also have a larger area cleaned off for a garden and have all the seeds enough for 5 years worth of planting stored and ready. We have also vacuum sealed our own beans,rice, in 5 gallon buckets. Just need more storage room to keep all of it. I guess that will be another project.

Sandy J.

Sandy J.

I vacuum-packed all our important documents with my Food Saver. Waterproofs them. Labeled them too. I also have a red mark on things that are for “grab & go”. That eay, if in a panic and delegating what to get, nothing gets missed.

Michelle

Michelle

I don’t know if anything is ever going to happen, but I want to learn how to be prepared for my families survivial

Emergency Essentials

Emergency Essentials

Hi Michelle! That’s a great desire to have. We have a lot of blog posts from a wide range of topics relating to emergency preparedness. I recommend looking through some of the posts, or even doing a search on our blog for a topic that interests you. Of course, we can always help you right here! Is there any area in particular you’d like to look into? We always suggest starting with water and food. After all, it’s what our bodies need to keep us going. If you’d like to talk to someone, give our sales and customer service department a call at 1.800.999.1863. They are very knowledgeable and are always glad to help!

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