"Doomsday Preppers"

I don’t know if any of you have seen the show “Doomsday Preppers” on the History Channel, but it is pretty ridiculous.  As described in the show’s title, this show is about people preparing for an apocalypse.  Before watching this show, I assumed that it was people preparing for 2012 doomsday type stuff.  However, the people on this show all have different theories about how the world is going to end and they are all preparing for something strangely specific such as the poles shifting, an oil crisis, a financial crisis.  Someone even said they were preparing for a power outage (and I was like, “Really?” You think a power outage is the end of the world?).

If I believed the world was going to end, I would not want to spend the last moments of my life obsessively preparing for an event that may or may not occur.  I feel sorry for these people because they are wasting all of their time and days with what sounds more like OCD than preparations. 

However, there is something to be said for having a “just in case” plan.  I would certainly not recommend doing what they do on that show.  But you can live a normal life and at the same time still be prepared for an emergency.  Here are a few ways:

1.    Know how to hunt.  The best way to survive would be to live in an area where you can already hunt on your own property.  That way, you wouldn’t have to uproot yourself in case of an emergency.

2.    Know how to garden.  Once again, the best thing to do would be to already have a garden before an incident happens.  This also requires living somewhere where you can have a garden.

3.     Have a heat source/cooking source that does not require electricity.  Whenever I buy a house, I intend to have a wood-burning stove in it.  However, this could be as simple as having a grill in your backyard or a Dutch oven.  You need to know how to prepare food without electricity. 

4.    Know how to preserve food.  Try to learn and practice canning.  Canning would be your best bet for a lot of stuff.  Collect mason jars, look up how to can and practice.  Know how to salt meat.  Also read up on burying for preservation, or other methods such as drying.

5.    Any one of us could stop buying clothes right now and still have enough clothing to last the rest of our lives, but it may be helpful to learn how to mend clothes by hand sewing so that the clothes you already have will last.

6.    Be well educated in basic first aid.

7.    Make sure you have a self-defense plan for intruders, such as the guns you already have for hunting.  ;)

8.    Hope to my goodness that the apocalypse you are preparing for isn’t a nuclear disaster, in which case, even if you survive, you will not be able to do any of the above. 

For the project of the day, I am working a winter ear-muff headband.  It simultaneously can look cute and keep your ears warm in winter.  For all one color, just cast on approximately 10-13 stitches (depending on how wide you want it).  I am alternating colors on mine.  Keep knitting back and forth until it measures the right length around your head.  Some knitters measure there heads first, but I’m more or less a “see how it goes” type knitter.  Cast off when it is the right length, then darn the ends together with matching yarn. 

I am not done yet, but here are the beginnings of my headband.