Raising Values: What Makes a Person a Prepper?

[00:00:00] Welcome to the Raising Values Podcast, where the traditional family talks. You can find us on iTunes,

[00:00:08] Stitcher and Spotify and be sure to follow us on Facebook and Instagram. You can support the raising values

[00:00:14] podcasts through Patreon. Villangilian are behind the mic and we hope you enjoy this show.

[00:00:30] Good afternoon, I usually say morning but good afternoon and it's not just Villangilian behind the mic.

[00:00:36] Today we have a special guest and a dear friend and I love her so much she makes my heart so happy.

[00:00:42] Holly Wilson and she is the winner of our Women Who Prep Giveaway that we did so Holly got a ticket to attend the online conference

[00:00:52] and this is where I am going to get all the business out of the way and since we are focusing on the Women Who Prep Conference

[00:01:00] and Women Preppers and all that stuff with this episode, I have to tell you about the conference.

[00:01:06] So the Women Who Prep Conference is April 20th through the 23rd. It is an online conference and these are some things that you can expect.

[00:01:16] It's kind of a lot of access to 15 plus sessions on various preparedness and home-set topics, a mix of live and recorded conference sessions,

[00:01:26] community group just for attendees which is off of social media, pre-conference live chats in the community, giveaways

[00:01:34] and you get recorded access through July 2024. So you get your ticket, you don't have to attend on those dates, you have access through July.

[00:01:44] And I also wanted to tell you more about the speakers so it's said 15 plus speakers and so these are some of the topics that we will be covering during the conference.

[00:01:54] The conference, EMP Grid Down, it's a panel discussion by a couple of people there's going to be on that one. Intentional home setting and let's see I'm keeping on going back up wireless communications.

[00:02:08] That should be a fun one again with the EMP down. Oh, Abney Acres, I love that. A skill of suturing demonstration so there will be demonstrations, there's also live Q&A

[00:02:20] so the assessment of last errations. Phil and I, we did a session, it's prepping with kids and then I was also part of the Urban and Suburban prepping panel discussion

[00:02:32] and I might be doing the live Q&A at the end of the conference. I need to confirm that.

[00:02:39] Then we have creating an herbal medicine cabinet which I am always, always wanting to learn more of Northern gardening, cooking off grid, small space, small space prepping.

[00:02:53] Emergency evacuation preparation, off grid 101, refuge medical and how to cook indoors when the lights go out.

[00:03:03] So as you can see there's going to be tons of topics that we will discuss, giveaways, there's sponsors, there's vendors, there's all sorts of things.

[00:03:13] If you have not gotten your ticket and you weren't as lucky as Miss Holly here then there is an affiliate link on our Facebook and our Instagram on the link tree.

[00:03:25] Use that affiliate link because you love me and you want to help me. Use my affiliate link to grab your ticket for that and of course you can buy as many tickets as you want through that affiliate link.

[00:03:38] I won't be mad but so yeah, so there's all the business and welcome Holly. I'm so glad to, I said before we started recording, I said I'm so glad to see your face.

[00:03:49] I wish we got to see each other more often but I will take seeing you through a camera if I can't hug your neck in real life. But oh and Phil's here.

[00:03:59] Yeah, I mean just just the name was faceless podcast producer.

[00:04:08] Well, I think I always feel like when me and Holly get together and it was for me when I first met Holly around that campfire in Arkansas.

[00:04:19] It was like, I've known you my entire life and I just want you to know how much I love you. And it was my first time getting to ever meet her and I feel like it's always like that.

[00:04:29] It's like it's like that friend where you may not talk for a year and but you pick up right where you left off kind of things. So that's it is.

[00:04:38] I feel like that with you. And maybe I'm being a little gushy, but that's what it is so.

[00:04:42] No, I think that's I think that's one of the things that's so much fun is because I felt the same thing too.

[00:04:49] And we just instantly felt like we were part of that community and some knew each other a little better than others.

[00:04:58] But now, you know, I mean, I think we we pick at each other. We love each other. All of it like we have in each other forever.

[00:05:06] Y'all are our Ches and family. And I was I mentioned earlier. I know you're here still but me and Holly are here.

[00:05:17] I mentioned earlier that it was a day for our patrons and a day for our Ches and family because we just went to lunch with Joe and his family who are in from Missouri.

[00:05:26] They're actually they went to the coast in Mississippi and then they came over here this morning for Brunche, breakfast, lunch kind of thing.

[00:05:34] And so we've spent the morning with some of our family from Missouri and now I've spent in them the rest of the day with you or not the rest of the day but at least another hour with you.

[00:05:44] And so it just reminds me of how blessed we are with this podcast and mainly yours because our patrons have come from you from mostly from the matter of facts.

[00:05:55] But anyway, I will stop gushing. We will get to the point that was almost seven minutes of me rambling.

[00:06:02] But yeah, do you have anything to say?

[00:06:06] No, I'm just feeding you the rope.

[00:06:09] Well, Holly, if you don't mind just kind of do a quick introduction just so people know who you are and we didn't just find some random person to come on board today.

[00:06:23] Well, it doesn't get more random than me at all.

[00:06:26] So you know, but you get what you pay for right?

[00:06:29] So we're not paying for you.

[00:06:31] Exactly. That's my goal.

[00:06:35] So my name is Holly Mack and I live with my husband and my son, we live in Alabama and we are just so excited to kind of be part of the matter of facts and raising values family.

[00:06:49] My husband, if you have followed matter of facts at all or if you're part of the chat, you are well aware of what he does.

[00:06:59] But our jobs are as different as they come.

[00:07:03] He is in law enforcement and has a background in law enforcement and you know before we started recording joke about how I'm in my bougie home office downstairs with

[00:07:16] you know, the pink curtains and all the frilly things which is about the only frilly space in our house.

[00:07:23] But I have a little more what I call a bougie job but so we just love family.

[00:07:30] We're a big supporter of family and we love getting together with our friends and all those fun things awesome.

[00:07:39] Well, okay, so that's going to bring us to our first banner.

[00:07:41] This is where you come in for this show.

[00:07:43] Okay.

[00:07:45] All right, so everyone has heard the story of me and Phil and how we've gotten into prepping.

[00:07:50] In fact, if you attend the conference, you can hear that story one more time.

[00:07:57] But what got you into prepping and how long have you been prepping?

[00:08:03] You know, it's funny because I have to stop and really kind of realize that I've been in prepping longer than what I kind of give myself credit for.

[00:08:14] Growing up as far back as I can remember, my mom and dad kind of instilled that in me just a little bit.

[00:08:23] Not to the extent that we do it today but you know, I remember anytime we would get in the car, my mom always had an emergency bag.

[00:08:32] And then of course when I, you know, became of driving age, the priority was you're going to learn how to change your oil, you're going to learn how to change your tire, you're going to have an emergency bag of your own.

[00:08:42] So, you know, we've always kind of had that emergency bag in the car and then in our, what we call, you know, our tornado safe space.

[00:08:51] I mean, you know here in Alabama, we're in the southeast tornadoes are a common thing.

[00:08:57] And we're as used to them as we can be but you know, we always talk about being prepared and not scared.

[00:09:05] And part of that is you've got your supplies, you've got your tornado kits and your tornado bags and all of that.

[00:09:11] So I grew up being aware of and prepared for those things.

[00:09:18] And then I have a background in disaster services both in mitigation and preparation and then response.

[00:09:28] So when I was a teenager, I began volunteering for a national disaster response organization.

[00:09:37] And did it for about 20 years just as a volunteer before I finally agreed to take a paid position as the disaster services programming person.

[00:09:48] And so with that, there was a little more preparedness that existed in my life for me and my immediate family.

[00:09:58] But it really wasn't until after I married my husband Kyle that that really got ramped up quite a bit.

[00:10:07] So, you know, kind of all my life in some respects but a majority of the more dedicated prepping really has been about the past nine years or so.

[00:10:16] Okay, I would even say that's longer than me. How long have you been prepping?

[00:10:21] Well, and did you get us started and see what what I was going to say was that what this sound, what this sounds familiar to is the story I've heard from a lot of people that

[00:10:30] that when you ask them this question of how long have you been into prepping, there's some kind of Genesis point almost in their childhood in a lot of cases where they remember prepping lessons that they never thought of as prepping that they grew up with.

[00:10:45] But it's often characterized a lot as you said, Holly, like we didn't take it as seriously as we do now or perhaps more and as extensive.

[00:10:53] And I would just say that like it sounds to me like your experience matches killing it eyes where like the methodologies of prepping were there if not exactly way you implemented like when you grew up in North Louisiana,

[00:11:05] I storms and tornadoes, they're part and parcel living up there. You learn what to do to get ready for them because that's your environmental hazard down here on the Gold Coast.

[00:11:15] I grew up it's hurricanes that's that's our bread and butter. It's not it's like I told the Oliver is this morning like it's not it's not if I get mild it's not if I kept

[00:11:27] hurricane wipes out five zip codes down here. It's when because you throw enough of them up here through the Gold Coast, you're going to catch one eventually.

[00:11:35] So a lot of the things I grew up with that like my parents would never characterize themselves as preppers and we never we never called any of that stuff prepping.

[00:11:44] We called it getting ready for hurricane season. It was just a normal part of life and the only difference between what I grew up doing that my parents taught me and what we do now is we've

[00:11:55] just expanded on it by orders of magnitude. Yeah, right. Yeah, we'll start seeing the stuff from the government soon, our local governments because June 1st is the beginning of hurricane season and now normally knock off wood.

[00:12:12] We don't normally see a hurricane until late July August, late August is when we'll start to see them and they really ramp up between August and November.

[00:12:23] Yeah, it's I you know me asking you how long have we been prepping kind of thing. But yeah, now that you think of your remind me I've been a prepper for a long time.

[00:12:34] But we never thought about that way growing up. It was I know this threat will come to my doorstep eventually.

[00:12:41] I better be ready for when it comes to my doorstep. Yeah, and the only difference between what what we did back then and what we do now from children to adults is the threats might be multiple there might be different threats.

[00:12:55] We're still looking at some of the old threats. We might deal with them different ways. But it's it's all based on the same methodology of you know when you have the worst day of your life.

[00:13:04] Do you want to be in a better or worse position to deal with it? Yeah, yeah. And you don't get to pick that on that day.

[00:13:11] Right. Pick that today and you get ready for that day now knowing when it's coming.

[00:13:15] So then I think it's safe to say most people start down the prepping road in regards to their natural environment.

[00:13:26] They're going to prep for tornadoes. They're going to prep our ice storms or whatever.

[00:13:31] And sometimes it sticks and then sometimes it grows and so that kind of leads me into my next question with how have you know what he's got?

[00:13:42] How have your family evolved since you started? How has your families or my inner grammar teacher is screaming right now I type these up three minutes form with life minus two points here.

[00:13:55] How has your family's prepping evolved since you started in my defense. I'm a math nerd not a grammar nerd.

[00:14:04] It's okay. It's life.

[00:14:07] You know, it's been funny because I think I had a little bit of a background in prepping and Kyle was a prepper in very different ways.

[00:14:18] And you know, it wasn't a hey woman. You're my wife now get to prepping.

[00:14:25] Yeah, there wasn't any of that. That's okay with you.

[00:14:30] Dylan get in the kitchen and rattle them fans while you're at it.

[00:14:35] Make me a sandwich. That's right. So I had a specific mindset about what prepping was for me and what it had been for me.

[00:14:46] And then I think Kyle had a mindset of what prepping was for him. Well now we're a family and it's a little bit different.

[00:14:55] Oh, well now there's other people to think about.

[00:14:58] Oh, there's other areas in which to prep that I had never considered before.

[00:15:03] Yeah.

[00:15:04] So to be perfectly honest when we met and dated and even after we've been married a little while you know I would look at him and think why are you so crazy?

[00:15:14] Like what are you planning for? What are you thinking? What is wrong with you, you know.

[00:15:19] But it's real y'all is true because you know I'm thinking oh we've got a little extra money in our budget.

[00:15:28] Let's buy a beautiful piece of furniture for home and he's like I need more ammo and I need this and I need this.

[00:15:35] And I'm like what are you why are you so crazy? Like why are you planning for me a box of lila right?

[00:15:41] But it made me kind of stop and kind of put myself in his shoes and get him to consider putting himself in mine as far as prepping went.

[00:15:55] So it's funny because it was almost piecemealed in the beginning but now as a family we are intentional about it.

[00:16:04] And I will say we're not like super super methodical.

[00:16:11] A lot of what we do is just understood and it comes naturally.

[00:16:15] And we've also you know had to be a little bit careful because whereas family is our priority and we're going to make sure that we're prepared.

[00:16:25] You know if you go out and say oh well I'm going to this preppers conference and we're spending the day working on our stockpile or whatever.

[00:16:35] A lot of people have a misconception about what prepping is so they think you're those crazy people who are hold up in a bunker reloading every Sunday and things like that.

[00:16:48] So we have evolved and now we are a family who does really kind of prep together in a lot of ways.

[00:16:55] Yeah I was in that same boat.

[00:16:58] I can remember having a conversation with my father-in-law in his driveway going I'm a little concerned.

[00:17:05] I don't know if he's like gone into the crazy like we need to send him to the crazy house or whatever but he's different.

[00:17:13] He's showing some different put an energy in places that what who is this man and then the body armor showed up at the front door.

[00:17:22] I'm like okay, I think we need to have a sit down conversation.

[00:17:27] What the hell are you doing?

[00:17:30] And what are you planning and do you know something that I don't know?

[00:17:34] To be fair because Holly brought up her husband being in law enforcement having that background.

[00:17:41] My background is I'm literally a combat veteran.

[00:17:44] I spent a year in Iraq and I spent several months in post Katrina New Orleans so like I don't view body armor as odd.

[00:17:54] Like to me that's literally just tools of my trade you know it might sound a little off the wall to the average person but to me it's like if someone said hey.

[00:18:03] I need to put on my hiking boots to go hiking woods like of course you would put on hiking boots go hiking woods.

[00:18:10] What else are you supposed to wear?

[00:18:12] Well in a situation like what I witnessed in Iraq and in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina,

[00:18:17] you want your body armor for body armor moments.

[00:18:20] Right but it was still one of those shock factors of okay we've now reached a new level where no longer just we no longer have like just five gallon buckets full of rice and beans in the fridge.

[00:18:31] And whatever now it was it really was that moment of he has totally lost all those marbles and they have fallen.

[00:18:42] How much do you need showing up at your door right after we really well but the funny part is she she was not at that time aware because back then like you know money was a lot tighter with us than it is now.

[00:18:57] We were earlier on in our careers and I had a very small prepper budget every month that I would spend that money and once that was spent that was it there were no extraneous purchases because I had to do adult things like playing for retirement and pay bills you know boring stuff nerd stuff.

[00:19:13] But that budget got spent every month whether or not you realized it so there was more ammunition and more medical equipment in this house that you realize at the moment the body armor showed up like to you that was the moment where you were like oh no we've reached a new level and to me I was like if you only understood how much how much other stuff is squirreled away in this house right now well I'll get that very real for me very fast because right after we got married.

[00:19:42] We're we're in our house and we are getting ready to go on a day trip and our first big purchase together right after we got married was a gun safe just any ordinary gun safe a very particular gun safe and I remember standing in the beautiful the beautiful the beautiful living room.

[00:20:02] At the house and all the furniture was so nice and it was so pretty in that day they were coming in to put the gun safe in the only room that could possibly work for this particular safe and then I was like how are we going to camouflage this what are we.

[00:20:19] We want to work around this and I was like okay it's real now you know so that was in our previous house and that was you know that was kind of that day that I was like okay you either got to embrace it or be okay for a woman.

[00:20:37] Right it didn't it did take me just a little bit to realize that this is coming from a place of love and he is trying to make sure that his family is protected and while it does seem crazy at least we're not moved into a bunker.

[00:20:51] And I have to get prepared to my father for like taking that standpoint because you know my father and I think to this day like we we don't see 100% eye to eye I would say on most things you know like

[00:21:06] he raised me to have my own opinion he raised me to be a mom person and make my decisions and deal with the consequences of those decisions.

[00:21:12] And so when it comes to like my viewpoint on preparedness he shares some of those views but then there's there's it's almost like I understand where you're coming from but I would never take it that far.

[00:21:23] And that's fine you know he's got his own life situation to account for but like I know that when he when he had that conversation with you it really was him probably thinking to self like I know my son yeah he's he's going to do whatever he thinks he has to take care of his family he doesn't care who says anything about it or what their viewpoint is because they're not the people who have the responsibility care for the for his family he does he's going to do it in whatever way he thinks is appropriate.

[00:21:53] And to give your dad credit he did talk me off the ledge and was like give him some time I don't think he's ready for the looney then yet you know he's just trying to take care of his family so yeah okay he says so far.

[00:22:06] You you came around I obviously came around because I have now joined you in the crazy no the crazy no it's either better you you all just wear us down who even knows it this morning I'm coming around.

[00:22:20] I'm kind of okay with six or half dozen it's the same thing to me either way it happens so I reordered these because she kind of started answering this about you know are y'all the family that preps together but I am curious because I have a suspicion just knowing y'all outside of this one podcast episode like do each one of y'all kind of have your own roles or your own like lanes or your own areas of expertise because like having talked to y'all both I kind of feel like I understand.

[00:22:49] The perspective y'all came from and a lot echoes I think me and gillian and I can imagine y'all y'all came at preparedness from two opposite lanes.

[00:22:58] Right that's I think that's so accurate to say that and it really is true in you know these days there's a lot when I say when we first got married there was a lot that I didn't understand and I thought you know like he I have married a crazy person I've made a grave mistake I'm married a crazy person.

[00:23:17] But you know now being this much farther down the road I really appreciate it and you know when I when I started talking to my husband about why he was doing what he was doing in the way of preparedness and all that I really began to appreciate it and respect it.

[00:23:35] It also made me more aware of like why he was more of a prepper and being very cognizant of what is going on around us at all times not just in our immediate bubble but the bigger pictures a whole but we are we are family who preps together.

[00:23:59] We do have our own specific roles.

[00:24:03] We have a young son and you know we have to be very careful about the balance between making sure that he is prepared and also not giving him anxiety or

[00:24:18] or anything and that's a very real thing there's enough fear and anxiety in his little world anyway and certainly you know if you have the news on in the background that can extremely fear-inducing for a lot of folks.

[00:24:33] So you know we have to be careful how we approach it but he is still very involved in the prepping so my husband does kind of have more of the you know for lack of better term.

[00:24:46] Hey look if it hits the fan I need you to be able to help our family with this so he is definitely more of the guns and ammo kind of guy and you know more of the body armor guy

[00:25:01] and a lot of the life skills that he already had from just the way that he grew up and certainly you know if he needed to being able to provide for his family you know whether it was food from growing it or our hunting animals or things like that.

[00:25:21] So to really knowing how to work with what you have to take care of your family so that was kind of his background and he kind of carries through with that.

[00:25:31] My I'm certainly a proponent of being safe and in my my job I mentioned I have a very what a lot of people would call a boozy job but in my job I work with a lot of clients regularly a lot of him.

[00:25:50] I don't really know ahead of time so it's important for me to make sure that I'm armed at all times when I'm with clients whether it's for my protection or mine and theirs.

[00:26:02] So so I do a little bit of prepping in that way as well but mine is more of the you know homestead type prepping and the canning and the making sure that we have the bucket full of flour and sugar and rice and beans and.

[00:26:18] You know taking stock of that our son has you know.

[00:26:23] Kind of embrace that when we go to the store will you know pick up a few extra things and I'll ask him to pick out some of his favorite things as far as canned goods go and he helps inventory things he has some responsibilities of how to take care of our pets if we were to get into a situation that warranted you know hey the grids gone down how are we going to respond.

[00:26:47] You know I am medicine and food and health care.

[00:26:52] Kyle is the guns and ammo guy our son is how are we going to take care of our pets and things like that so we all do it together we don't wake up and say today is prepping day but.

[00:27:05] But just an ongoing thing with us and we work it in as we can and where we can I love that I love to hear how y'all have incorporated age into all of this and yeah we've you'll certainly see.

[00:27:24] And the that he is going to evolve on his own as he grows older and then his roles will change as well and it made me think of something that happened recently in our house a couple of weeks ago few weeks ago now I wasn't sick or anything but I had an emergency visit where the doctor had to tell me that I just got up too fast you're just getting up you're too old now and you just got up too fast you got dizzy and you passed out.

[00:27:52] It happened 5 30 in the morning it's dark outside so there's no light in the bathroom and I had told Piper said I'll go get dad I don't feel so great and I passed out in the bathroom.

[00:28:04] It was so incredible to see how my 11 year old child reacted to that it wasn't a she claims that she wasn't scared but she went into straight on we need shoes we need keys we need this we need that dad's got mom mom's incapacitated.

[00:28:24] But I've got these things and they weren't necessarily anything that we had planned for we never truly went over this is your role if mom passes out in the bathroom you don't plan for those kinds of things because you're not going to think about everything but I saw my kid in a whole new light she had matured through this whole process of being in a proper family and she's been a proper her entire life so.

[00:28:52] I did come to and I was able to hold my own and once we you know this specially gotten to the ER and I was so apologetic and I'm thinking I've scared my my kid I passed out I was unable to help or do anything and I didn't want her to think oh mom's dying or something like that.

[00:29:11] She the way that she responded was just so mature and in such such true prepper she takes takes after her dad.

[00:29:20] She's she brought fill her shoes she made sure the key she had the keys everything she just thought of everything.

[00:29:28] So she at one point like she made the decision as I was walking you out to the truck because like we live so close to the nearest emergency room that I was like if you can still motor under your power to the truck I can get you to the emergency room faster than an ambulance can get here so let's just like cut out the middle man and just take you are so.

[00:29:50] I'm not going to let you know that I'm not going to let you know that I'm not going to let you know that I'm not going to let you know that I'm not going to let you know that I'm not going to let you know that I'm not going to let you know that I'm not going to let you know that I'm not going to let you know that I'm not going to let you know that I'm not going to let you know that I'm not going to let you know that I'm not going to let you know that I'm not going to let you know that I'm not going to let you know that I'm not going to let you know that I'm not going to let you know that I'm not going to let you know that I'm not going to let you know that I'm not going to let you know that I'm not going to let you know that I'm not going to let you know that I'm not going to let you know that I'm not going to let you know that I'm not going to

[00:30:20] let you know it is sell that like she was like she was people have they had their wet chest They don't want to snowflake because she was people have their Sanssi Dragons

[00:30:50] because I know, I think just in the time that we've been around y'all

[00:30:54] and what we know of y'all and the conversations we've had,

[00:30:57] it's similar to the way that we work.

[00:31:00] You know, one of my son's favorite games is,

[00:31:05] would you rather do this or that?

[00:31:07] And he loves it.

[00:31:08] And knowing that about him, I started thinking,

[00:31:11] well how can we play on what he plugs into

[00:31:16] to get him thinking about preparedness

[00:31:18] and kind of evolve from, would you rather into what would you do if?

[00:31:22] And we give scenarios.

[00:31:24] And even this afternoon at lunch,

[00:31:27] we were talking about some,

[00:31:29] what would you do if scenarios that dealt with active shooters

[00:31:33] and what if the house were on fire

[00:31:35] and you were upstairs and our downstairs?

[00:31:38] How would you handle that?

[00:31:39] And things like that he really seems to dig in

[00:31:43] to those critical thinking skills.

[00:31:45] I think partially because he's still young enough

[00:31:48] that the world hasn't told him no and no, that's not possible.

[00:31:52] So in his mind, hey anything is possible, you know?

[00:31:56] And then also partially just because we run scenarios with him a lot

[00:32:02] and when we go out to eat and where we sit in a restaurant,

[00:32:08] you know, we'll have those conversations here.

[00:32:10] And if someone came in and did this, what would you do?

[00:32:14] So he thinks about those things in real time too.

[00:32:18] And it just comes naturally to him in a lot of cases now

[00:32:21] and he's not the weird kid

[00:32:23] and it's neat to just be out with him on a regular day

[00:32:28] and have him think about or say something and it clicks.

[00:32:32] You're like, okay, my kid gets it.

[00:32:34] He gets it.

[00:32:35] Okay.

[00:32:36] So that's what I need to.

[00:32:38] Yeah.

[00:32:38] I love watching all of our kids evolve through this lifestyle

[00:32:43] and figure out what their role, what their real,

[00:32:48] not real role but what their role is in the family.

[00:32:51] And then what is their role gonna be

[00:32:53] because we have friends in our community

[00:32:55] that within the matter of facts, raising values community

[00:32:58] whose kids are a bunch older.

[00:32:59] They've graduated high school there in college

[00:33:02] or whatever some of them are going off

[00:33:04] to the military school and whatever.

[00:33:06] And so I know that those roles for them have also changed

[00:33:11] and it's actually so much fun to watch them grow up.

[00:33:14] And one of the things that we had talked about

[00:33:16] when we had Sarah and Brock on a couple of weeks ago

[00:33:23] was when we all go to Prepper camp,

[00:33:26] we just let our kids become feral again

[00:33:29] and let them run off and do their own thing.

[00:33:32] There's a speaking on the woods, don't have fun.

[00:33:34] Here's a radio and an emergency whistle in case

[00:33:37] you need to announce your location to me

[00:33:39] and I need to find you.

[00:33:40] Yeah, and I know that we can call up or text friends

[00:33:43] or whatever and say, have you seen Piper?

[00:33:45] And they're like, oh yeah, she's down here

[00:33:46] at this vendor's booth or whatever.

[00:33:48] So I think that's another aspect of how we raise

[00:33:53] our children in this lifestyle is we allow them to be feral.

[00:33:57] We allow them to have those moments

[00:34:00] where they have to use those critical thinking skills

[00:34:03] because mom and dad may not always be there.

[00:34:06] Mom and dad have sent you off into the woods

[00:34:09] and kicked you out of the nest babe.

[00:34:10] So if you come across a snake, what are you gonna do?

[00:34:14] Or if you get in a boat and it capsizes

[00:34:16] on the lake while you're fishing with your friend,

[00:34:18] what are you gonna do?

[00:34:20] And so it's...

[00:34:21] But more than teaching specific skills,

[00:34:23] I feel like what we in this community

[00:34:26] are teaching our children is the thought process

[00:34:29] of a person that's prepared in search of survival minded.

[00:34:31] Like the thing, Holly, that you brought up

[00:34:34] like playing what would you do with your son?

[00:34:36] Like that's exactly what I used to do with Piper

[00:34:38] when she was younger.

[00:34:39] And in big boy terms, we call it war game.

[00:34:43] It's your present as scenario.

[00:34:45] What would you do in this scenario?

[00:34:46] And it's just a thought exercise

[00:34:48] so that if that scenario ever pops up

[00:34:50] or something similar to it,

[00:34:51] you kind of already have a thought process

[00:34:54] you're engaged in.

[00:34:55] But at the very least what we're trying to teach our children

[00:34:58] is the ability to apply past lessons

[00:35:02] to future emergencies.

[00:35:03] Like with Piper in that scenario you gave,

[00:35:07] it was, we had never told her if mom passes out,

[00:35:10] this is what you do.

[00:35:11] But Piper's been around us in enough

[00:35:14] smaller scale emergency situations like hurricane Ida

[00:35:18] or like that it's not the first time

[00:35:20] we've had to take you to the emergency room for something

[00:35:22] or take her to the emergency room.

[00:35:24] And we all know like these are the things

[00:35:26] we need to do to get this person taken care of.

[00:35:28] But almost more importantly for her

[00:35:31] is the fact that in those emergency situations

[00:35:34] she's never observed two parents who were sitting there

[00:35:37] with their finger in their mouth

[00:35:38] not knowing what to do or freaking out

[00:35:40] or losing their stuff.

[00:35:42] Like she's observed mom and dad,

[00:35:44] you know maybe there's some fear that's fair

[00:35:47] that's part well within bounds to be scared

[00:35:49] when there's reasons to be scared.

[00:35:51] But she always observed mom and dad I have a plan,

[00:35:54] I am executing the plan

[00:35:56] I am holding my family together

[00:35:57] I am not worried about this little thing right here

[00:36:01] I'm still looking far off into the distance

[00:36:03] so that the next phase of this emergency I'm prepared for

[00:36:07] and those are lessons we've tried to instill in her

[00:36:09] and you've tried to instill in your son.

[00:36:11] It's teaching a person how to maintain their calm

[00:36:14] under pressure and that's a hard thing to teach

[00:36:18] but I find it kinda comes naturally

[00:36:20] to people in this community for some reason

[00:36:21] like because we've instilled in ourselves

[00:36:24] we're naturally gonna try to instill that in our kids.

[00:36:26] Yeah, and as a mom and a teacher

[00:36:31] you see that instilling these things in our children now

[00:36:35] and it's like we say on this podcast all the time

[00:36:38] is we're raising adults

[00:36:39] and so we want to make sure that when they do fly the nest

[00:36:43] they are prepared and they can think through those scenarios

[00:36:46] because it's like I told Piper the other day

[00:36:49] she was upset about some assignment she had for school

[00:36:52] and I said sweetheart, it is only gonna get harder from here

[00:36:55] like you are about to be in high school

[00:36:57] and this assignment is nothing compared to what you're gonna have

[00:37:02] so we're gonna have to teach you some coping skills

[00:37:04] and that is really what we're doing

[00:37:06] is we're teaching our kids how to cope

[00:37:08] through the hard stressful situations

[00:37:09] that they're going to find themselves in as adults

[00:37:12] and now is the time.

[00:37:15] I mean that is we started, Piper was a baby when we started

[00:37:18] you started when your son was a baby

[00:37:21] and so you know, pat ourselves on the back for that

[00:37:24] I feel like it's something that at least I didn't get

[00:37:27] when I was a child but I don't know

[00:37:30] I think it's great.

[00:37:32] I mean I can remember being fairly young

[00:37:35] when I got the speech from my dad about

[00:37:38] like my jobs prepare you for the world

[00:37:40] that I'm not into protecting you anymore

[00:37:42] and like I couldn't tell you how young I was

[00:37:44] when I got that speech but I remember at the time being like

[00:37:48] oh my god, what do you mean you're not gonna be here?

[00:37:50] Like you know, there was a concept for me to embrace

[00:37:53] was that my dad's jobs prepared me for the day

[00:37:57] I have to live without him

[00:37:58] without that guidance and that protection everything else

[00:38:01] and you know like I'm 41 years old

[00:38:03] and I'm not ready to lose him

[00:38:05] but I know that if I had to my family

[00:38:07] would be taken care of we'll get through it.

[00:38:10] So I think that's a thing that like we prepare

[00:38:13] our children for maybe younger than some do

[00:38:18] but it's just try to, you know

[00:38:21] like the reason most was can't preparedness

[00:38:23] was to take care of our families

[00:38:25] with the understanding that there will be a day

[00:38:27] we're not gonna be there to do it

[00:38:29] so we have to prepare them to take care of themselves too.

[00:38:32] So Holly, what I know you've been prepping

[00:38:35] for a very long time but what came naturally to you

[00:38:38] and then what would you say is your biggest obstacle

[00:38:41] in prepping?

[00:38:43] I think what came naturally was making sure

[00:38:48] that we were prepared for, you know, the pantry

[00:38:51] that the pantry was always stopped.

[00:38:53] That's important.

[00:38:55] Yeah, that was a very natural thing.

[00:38:58] You know it was kind of an easy transition

[00:39:00] into getting more prepared in that way

[00:39:03] as far as learning the can.

[00:39:05] I had never been a canner until a few years ago

[00:39:10] and then you know my father-in-law is so gracious

[00:39:15] and gives us tons of fresh eggs and vegetables

[00:39:19] and all those things and I thought

[00:39:21] well we can't let this go to waste.

[00:39:23] There's only three of us.

[00:39:24] We're not gonna eat all this in a week.

[00:39:26] What can we do?

[00:39:28] So I learned how to can

[00:39:31] and then realized it was not as daunting

[00:39:33] as I thought it was.

[00:39:34] I absolutely love it now but you know those kind of things

[00:39:39] just making sure that our pantry was stopped

[00:39:41] making sure that we were stopped

[00:39:43] with any medical supplies

[00:39:45] that we might need, those kind of things

[00:39:49] making sure that we had that emergency backup

[00:39:52] with our finances and access to those things

[00:39:56] because let's be honest.

[00:39:58] We in 2011 here in Alabama

[00:40:03] and the part of Alabama where we live

[00:40:04] we had a major, major tornado that came through

[00:40:09] during rush hour one day

[00:40:11] and it took out all of the non-government agencies

[00:40:16] that work in disasters such as the Red Cross,

[00:40:19] the Salvation Army, things like that.

[00:40:21] It took out all the local police departments,

[00:40:23] all the local sheriff's departments,

[00:40:25] all the communications towers.

[00:40:28] Every major fire stations, multiple fire stations.

[00:40:32] So all of these people that had always been

[00:40:36] the first responders were suddenly dealing with

[00:40:40] taking a hit at ground zero themselves.

[00:40:44] How do you respond as a community?

[00:40:46] Well guess what?

[00:40:47] If the first responders can't get to you

[00:40:49] how are you gonna take care of your family?

[00:40:52] So communications really took precedence

[00:40:57] at that point for our family.

[00:40:59] There's emergency communications.

[00:41:02] I went through coursework and studying to get my ham license.

[00:41:06] My husband made sure that we had plenty

[00:41:09] of handheld scanners

[00:41:13] and things like that, ways to communicate

[00:41:15] if the grid goes down and let's face it.

[00:41:19] It's not if it's when guys were doing that.

[00:41:23] Cell phones, members are just few weeks ago.

[00:41:25] Just a few weeks ago, all the, you know,

[00:41:28] we saw the meta platform was down

[00:41:31] and the cell phone platforms were out.

[00:41:36] So well guess what?

[00:41:38] When you can't use your credit card

[00:41:39] how do you get gas?

[00:41:40] Well, if you can't, you know, get to a gas station

[00:41:43] and they can't, you know, take money.

[00:41:45] Do you have gas reserves?

[00:41:47] And you know, some little things like that.

[00:41:50] So it was just kind of natural to make sure

[00:41:53] that we had some of those extra things

[00:41:56] that we do anyway.

[00:41:58] Hey next time you go to the store for band aids

[00:42:00] let's pick up some extra ones

[00:42:02] or let's take it a step further and think through

[00:42:05] if we went something, if we went through something like that

[00:42:07] again what could we possibly need?

[00:42:10] And let's go ahead and get prepared

[00:42:11] and have those things on hand.

[00:42:13] As far as obstacles initially,

[00:42:17] I think it was just space in our previous home

[00:42:20] we were, you know, I was already established

[00:42:23] as a single adult and my husband had been established

[00:42:28] as a single adult and then you get married

[00:42:29] and combine things and move into one household.

[00:42:33] And so physical space was kind of an obstacle at first

[00:42:39] that and again, just the misconception of what it means

[00:42:44] to be a partner and to think,

[00:42:48] are we fixing to alienate ourselves from our friends

[00:42:51] or our friends gonna understand what this means

[00:42:54] or are we fixing to ostracize ourselves

[00:42:57] from our social networks?

[00:42:58] So yeah.

[00:42:59] You know that was a little bit of an obstacle.

[00:43:02] And again, you know as Phil mentioned,

[00:43:04] you know kind of when you're starting out your budget

[00:43:06] may not be what it is several years down the road

[00:43:09] or when you're more well established in your job.

[00:43:12] So really having to prioritize what your finances are

[00:43:17] and what you need and how to marry those things together.

[00:43:19] Yeah, I am sorry.

[00:43:21] I was, I recently did the Women Who Prep

[00:43:25] live panel discussion and I probably shouldn't say this

[00:43:28] but there was a part on there where we were giving advice

[00:43:33] to the people listening and the question was

[00:43:37] what would you give?

[00:43:37] You know what would you say?

[00:43:39] And I use the term, you know how do you eat an elephant?

[00:43:43] You eat it one bite at a time.

[00:43:46] And so that is how you have to think of prepping.

[00:43:50] You have to fit it into that budget.

[00:43:52] You have to fit it into the lifestyle.

[00:43:55] My sister Phoebe had a comment earlier in the show

[00:43:58] and she said where's the best place

[00:43:59] to store prepped items

[00:44:01] and what is the most valuable thing that you prep?

[00:44:06] This answer changes for everybody

[00:44:08] in every situation.

[00:44:09] And I don't know if Phoebe is still on

[00:44:11] but it's really dependent on where you live.

[00:44:15] There are people that have basements.

[00:44:18] We don't, you don't.

[00:44:19] And so our prepping took over a bedroom

[00:44:24] and our garage for the most part.

[00:44:29] I mean our preps are pretty well packed

[00:44:31] in the end.

[00:44:33] They're diverse in five trips.

[00:44:34] I'm not a boss, there's none of them think about it.

[00:44:36] Yeah, that's true.

[00:44:37] What I would say about the where do you store prep items?

[00:44:40] The answer is wherever you can that it makes sense to.

[00:44:43] Like if you have a garage and it's secure

[00:44:46] and you're willing to go out there and check every so often

[00:44:48] make sure there's no pest or anything

[00:44:50] eaten on your stuff,

[00:44:51] that's perfectly within bounds.

[00:44:53] I would say that where you store your things

[00:44:58] is a very individual situation

[00:45:01] and you need to take into account

[00:45:03] what the environment is

[00:45:05] is the thing you're trying to store safe out there.

[00:45:08] Like obviously, if it's something

[00:45:10] that can't tolerate a lot of moisture

[00:45:11] I'm not going to leave it out in the garage

[00:45:12] for a long period of time

[00:45:13] down here in South Louisiana

[00:45:15] because the humidity is like 110% most of the year

[00:45:19] and it get ruined.

[00:45:20] I'm not going to secure firearms out in the garage

[00:45:22] for example,

[00:45:23] because they'll rust themselves to pieces.

[00:45:25] I wouldn't store farms in the garage anyway

[00:45:28] because the garage I feel like is safe enough

[00:45:31] for some things,

[00:45:32] not necessarily for other things.

[00:45:33] So where you store your stuff is

[00:45:36] that's a highly individual thing.

[00:45:38] As far as like the most valuable thing,

[00:45:41] I'm going to buck a lot of the preparedness community

[00:45:43] and say it's nothing to do with farms

[00:45:45] and ammunition as important as that is,

[00:45:47] it's water.

[00:45:48] Yeah, I knew you were going to say water.

[00:45:50] It's well,

[00:45:51] but let's go back to the tenants or preparedness

[00:45:53] like how far,

[00:45:54] how long can you live without shelter, water, food

[00:45:59] and the truth matter is

[00:46:00] you can make it about supposedly

[00:46:02] I know there's this not a hard fast rule

[00:46:03] but like three weeks with food,

[00:46:04] three days without water,

[00:46:06] three hours in an ankle and ankle

[00:46:08] and condition without shelter.

[00:46:11] If you're in a home,

[00:46:11] you have sheltered debt with already.

[00:46:13] You've got three days to find drinkable water

[00:46:15] that is going to keep you disintering.

[00:46:17] So I always tell people I'm like,

[00:46:19] you know,

[00:46:20] optimally you bring all these things up evenly

[00:46:24] but the very first thing I always tell people is

[00:46:26] I'm like if you don't have water,

[00:46:28] that's in my opinion,

[00:46:30] it's one of the simplest things to cross off the list

[00:46:33] and it's one of the most important.

[00:46:34] And if you're a meaty reaction is on my own city water,

[00:46:37] what happens if I turn your water meter off?

[00:46:39] Yeah.

[00:46:40] What happens if a tree falls on your neighborhood?

[00:46:44] Holding tank.

[00:46:45] Holding tank.

[00:46:46] Got hit by a pine tree after Ida

[00:46:47] we woke up the next morning with no water pressure

[00:46:49] and we got,

[00:46:50] I mean like,

[00:46:51] the water,

[00:46:53] the water prepping plan that I put together

[00:46:56] stretch it out max,

[00:46:58] it's probably 28 days

[00:46:59] about what I calculated.

[00:47:01] Now that's a half gallon of person

[00:47:02] so we're talking about extreme.

[00:47:06] That's like no shower,

[00:47:07] you know bathing,

[00:47:07] no brushing your teeth,

[00:47:08] no coffee,

[00:47:09] that is literally like max sustainment.

[00:47:12] But it's still 28 days of pot of water

[00:47:15] which is enough time to get me set up with the stuff

[00:47:19] I have in the garage

[00:47:20] as all claps gather with some burky filters

[00:47:22] and some other things

[00:47:23] to make a gravity fed water filter system.

[00:47:26] We've got 35 gallons out back hooked up

[00:47:28] to the down spouts

[00:47:30] and I'm working on 110 gallon rain catch too.

[00:47:34] So long story short, water,

[00:47:36] most important thing.

[00:47:37] You're not gonna get very far

[00:47:39] if you don't have clean drinking water.

[00:47:41] Right.

[00:47:41] Yeah, so yeah.

[00:47:44] There was I think two more questions

[00:47:46] and we'll,

[00:47:47] we've got about 10 minutes or so

[00:47:48] so you'll have to go back to banners.

[00:47:50] Hi Nina, I'm so glad you joined us.

[00:47:52] We can go as long as she's got time for though.

[00:47:55] Because I know that you joined us in the mornings

[00:47:57] and I wasn't sure if you were going to join us this afternoon

[00:47:59] so I'm glad you are while you're shopping.

[00:48:01] All right, so what advice would you give someone

[00:48:04] that's just starting out?

[00:48:08] I would say kind of how do you eat an elephant

[00:48:12] when you're about to start?

[00:48:14] I would say start with one thing at a time.

[00:48:18] Start small.

[00:48:19] You don't have to go out and buy all the guns

[00:48:22] and all the ammo

[00:48:23] and all the five gallon buckets

[00:48:25] and fill them up immediately.

[00:48:28] But figure out what some of the most important things are

[00:48:32] for you, for your family and start there.

[00:48:36] Do you have an emergency bag for your car?

[00:48:39] Yeah, easy peasy.

[00:48:40] You have one for your house

[00:48:43] if there were to be a weather disaster

[00:48:46] or some other type of disaster.

[00:48:49] Do you have a little bit of extra food next time

[00:48:53] you go to the grocery store

[00:48:55] pick up a little bit of extra where you can.

[00:49:00] Anytime you see those by one get one sales,

[00:49:04] grab an extra, put it in the pantry

[00:49:06] or put it in a feed grade bucket

[00:49:10] or some bucket that you can seal and take care of it.

[00:49:13] Little things like that

[00:49:15] I think you would definitely do better off

[00:49:20] kind of being a little more methodical about it that way

[00:49:23] than going all in guns ablaze and literally

[00:49:28] and running around in a panic

[00:49:32] or trying to get all the things done at once

[00:49:35] because it's an evolving process.

[00:49:38] The basics are important.

[00:49:41] The basics are so important.

[00:49:44] And then once you kind of get the hang of that,

[00:49:46] you begin to understand what your family can handle

[00:49:50] or what more specific needs they would have,

[00:49:54] you know things like that.

[00:49:55] You definitely don't wanna get into a situation where

[00:49:57] your supplies as far as perishable things

[00:50:01] are eventually perishable go bad

[00:50:05] and you have you know, rancid flour

[00:50:07] that's not gonna do you any good, you know things like that

[00:50:10] but you begin to realize what things your family might need

[00:50:15] more of and you know like as far as prepping for our son

[00:50:20] when he was a baby the way that we prepped for him

[00:50:23] looked very different from the way that it looks now, you know.

[00:50:26] So it's an evolving process but I would say focus

[00:50:30] you know pick those one or two things

[00:50:32] that would make an immediate difference and start there.

[00:50:36] And I would add to that too

[00:50:38] start with something that comes naturally to you.

[00:50:40] So when Phil really got into the whole prepping scene

[00:50:44] and then I started to treasure along behind him,

[00:50:46] I was overwhelmed with okay we're preppers,

[00:50:53] that's what this means and whatever.

[00:50:55] So I had to get past the stigma of like you said

[00:50:58] of where preppers are we going to lose friends

[00:51:01] and family because of this

[00:51:02] because they're gonna think we're crazy bunker people.

[00:51:04] Never cared.

[00:51:05] I know you did and but I did think about those things.

[00:51:07] How does it carry there so that's okay.

[00:51:09] Well I've come to learn that you know

[00:51:12] I'd rather my family be taken care of

[00:51:13] than from a opinion of other people

[00:51:16] but what I started to do is really start questioning okay

[00:51:20] well he's got the food and ammo and body armor

[00:51:24] you know it's got all that stuff on check.

[00:51:25] What can I add to this?

[00:51:27] So I've really started to go down the rabbit hole

[00:51:31] of medicinal herbs and making sure

[00:51:34] that if we can't get to a pharmacy

[00:51:37] what can I use that is provided in nature

[00:51:39] to keep my family healthy.

[00:51:41] And when I tell you a rabbit hole is a rabbit hole

[00:51:45] and it's so much you're probably gonna laugh at this.

[00:51:48] I consider myself a green witch now

[00:51:50] it's like I'm little witchy vibes going through

[00:51:53] the forest out next door.

[00:51:55] Listen, it's funny that you say that

[00:51:58] because I have a real like a legit story about that

[00:52:01] you know is several years ago

[00:52:03] I guess when they got really popular

[00:52:05] I jumped on the essential oils bandwagon

[00:52:08] and my husband has been the absolute worst

[00:52:11] making fun of me and he would say

[00:52:13] oh get out your gippie-holes

[00:52:15] gippie-holes and all that

[00:52:16] but let me tell you what happened

[00:52:18] yo he's hooked on his sinker in the hippie-holes now.

[00:52:22] Yeah?

[00:52:23] So my mother was working in the yard

[00:52:26] this has been a few months ago

[00:52:28] mom was working in the yard and her backyard

[00:52:30] and she had a flower pot

[00:52:32] and the chipmunk had dug up her flower in this little pot

[00:52:36] and she took her finger

[00:52:37] and she just poked it right down in the dirt

[00:52:39] and kind of put that flower back in there

[00:52:43] and then you know a few hours went by

[00:52:45] and we had gone to dinner that night

[00:52:46] we had an event at the local university

[00:52:49] and we had gone out and her finger is hot

[00:52:51] and it is red and it is swollen

[00:52:54] and it continues through the night to swell

[00:52:57] the next day her finger one little petite finger

[00:53:01] looked like about three of mine put together.

[00:53:03] Oh god.

[00:53:04] And it was red, the skin was about to burst

[00:53:07] and we couldn't figure out what was going on.

[00:53:11] So she had to take a trip to the emergency clinic

[00:53:15] and all that kind of stuff.

[00:53:17] Short version she ended up on an IV drip,

[00:53:22] a 24-7 hot strip for her finger

[00:53:27] and they said oh it's so elitist that has set in

[00:53:29] and she was in extreme pain

[00:53:32] and it went on and on and kept getting worse

[00:53:34] not better.

[00:53:35] She was on extreme antibiotics y'all

[00:53:40] and you know what antibiotics do?

[00:53:42] And she was getting as many probiotics back in there

[00:53:44] she could to kind of help counteract

[00:53:48] some of the results of those antibiotics

[00:53:50] and it was not getting better

[00:53:53] and to the point where we were worried

[00:53:55] she was gonna lose her finger and insert the hippie holes.

[00:53:58] So just because I'm like that person now

[00:54:03] I was like that's it.

[00:54:04] I'm going, you know, I now grow things.

[00:54:07] That's new for me where you're not full on home stethers

[00:54:10] but you know we're taking steps

[00:54:13] and I have a garden every year now.

[00:54:15] I grow my own herbs and so I went and grabbed some oregano.

[00:54:19] I said well I'm cooking dinner

[00:54:20] and I'm gonna put as much fresh oregano in it

[00:54:23] as I can and we actually used oregano wool on her finger

[00:54:27] within just a few hours.

[00:54:30] The swelling begins reducing.

[00:54:32] The color is coming back in her finger.

[00:54:34] She's getting pain relief.

[00:54:36] Now this is something that modern medicine

[00:54:38] had not been able to accurately treat

[00:54:40] but pretty immediately we had an herbal remedy for it.

[00:54:45] Luke, okay maybe except that we have used

[00:54:49] that same situation in other wounds

[00:54:55] and other treatments where antibiotics might be needed

[00:54:58] and we've seen bodies resistant to those antibiotics

[00:55:02] but we have seen those same bodies

[00:55:05] my husband was one of them respond to herbal remedies.

[00:55:10] So move over sister I'm a green witch with an ounce of it.

[00:55:14] Yeah, so that is something that I feel like

[00:55:18] I bring to the table of prepping

[00:55:19] and it really helps with that whole lifestyle

[00:55:24] within your family when someone,

[00:55:28] when everyone can play a role at some point.

[00:55:32] And so like I was saying so start naturally

[00:55:35] start with what comes natural to you

[00:55:37] and go down that road

[00:55:38] and while you're building over here

[00:55:41] with that one or two things, research other things

[00:55:44] you're gonna need to do your research

[00:55:46] prepping is a lot of reading

[00:55:48] and finding out what others have done before you

[00:55:51] that worked and didn't work

[00:55:52] and then prepping is also a lot of how people lived

[00:55:56] a long time ago, I say a long time ago,

[00:55:59] 100 years ago, 80 years ago that's how people lived

[00:56:02] and so research and do figure out what worked for them

[00:56:07] because the manual has been written

[00:56:09] you don't have to rewrite it, it's not that hard.

[00:56:12] So yeah.

[00:56:14] I would also say that like even though there were things

[00:56:16] that I was kind of already prepping

[00:56:18] your input was still invaluable to those

[00:56:20] like our food prepping, I would say

[00:56:23] when I was the only one doing it was very one dimensional

[00:56:26] it was lots of rice and beans,

[00:56:28] it was lots of like what is it going to take

[00:56:31] to keep my family from starving death

[00:56:33] if we have to fall back on this?

[00:56:36] And to that end like I had again, yeah.

[00:56:39] The water was bottled up to about 28 days standard

[00:56:42] I had the food up to about the same standard

[00:56:44] which goes to what we were talking about earlier

[00:56:46] about how you bring all things up

[00:56:49] somewhat evenly if you can

[00:56:51] and I started out prepping for a three day emergency

[00:56:53] and then a week emergency and then two weeks

[00:56:55] and then this was about the four week mark.

[00:56:57] And then when you came in, you were like,

[00:56:59] I really appreciate you doing all this prepping

[00:57:01] and getting all this food put away

[00:57:03] but if you don't have baking supplies to make me

[00:57:06] and your child brownies in the middle of a bad day

[00:57:09] it's gonna be a worst day.

[00:57:10] Here your child who will eventually be a woman

[00:57:13] who will need those chocolates and brownies.

[00:57:16] So as a result.

[00:57:17] You want to live through this apocalypse?

[00:57:20] Hahaha.

[00:57:21] So the five gallon buckets of beans and rice,

[00:57:25] they've more than tripled in count at this point.

[00:57:28] That's still always going to be a good base reserve

[00:57:31] of calories but to that like we have,

[00:57:33] I call it the caffeine bucket.

[00:57:35] It's a bucket full of green coffee beans

[00:57:37] because I roast moan beans and black tea bags.

[00:57:40] We have a bucket that's nothing but baking supplies,

[00:57:42] flour, cornmeal, salt, baking powder.

[00:57:45] Like all the, everything except for milk

[00:57:48] and I actually have some powdered milk put away

[00:57:50] that I hope I never have to use but it's there.

[00:57:53] And you know we keep a pretty good supply of eggs on hand.

[00:57:56] But I continue to expand our food stock

[00:58:01] in the direction that you were guiding me

[00:58:03] because to me it doesn't matter

[00:58:06] except for maybe a cost perspective

[00:58:08] whether I prep this or this for food

[00:58:10] except that this will make my daughter and wife

[00:58:13] a little happier in emergency situation

[00:58:15] than this will.

[00:58:16] Yeah, and you know that's just one more course layer

[00:58:19] to throw into the whole survivalism

[00:58:22] and preparedness lifestyle is if you're going to have

[00:58:27] to rough it, rough it and keep morale up.

[00:58:30] Thrive, not true.

[00:58:32] And especially in a time when you are in control

[00:58:36] of your preps, try to keep your morale up.

[00:58:39] Make sure you have some extra underwear

[00:58:41] or make sure you have the soap in your preps

[00:58:44] and make sure you have those things

[00:58:45] that are going to keep you alive

[00:58:47] from your women that live in the house.

[00:58:51] So, Nina, there was a question or something

[00:58:57] that Nina had said in the comments,

[00:59:00] oh don't fall for the gimmick stuff.

[00:59:02] Yeah, that's a big one.

[00:59:04] We are definitely a community that is targeted

[00:59:08] and especially if you're new to prepping

[00:59:11] there's a lot of weeds that you've got to get through

[00:59:14] to figure out what's real and what's not real

[00:59:17] and what's a gimmick and what's not a gimmick.

[00:59:18] And that's where I would say podcasts like this

[00:59:23] and matter of facts and the communities

[00:59:25] that are already established will help you

[00:59:28] because we've either been there and done that

[00:59:31] so we've tried out those things, we've seen

[00:59:34] and honestly y'all you'll see follow the podcasts

[00:59:38] or the YouTube channels or whatever

[00:59:40] and see who their sponsors are

[00:59:43] because a lot of times those people aren't going to be

[00:59:46] sponsored, they're not gonna go along with the sponsorship

[00:59:48] that they don't trust or willing to incorporate

[00:59:52] into their lifestyle.

[00:59:53] So look at those sponsorships and things like that.

[00:59:56] So again do your research and Nina I do have to say

[01:00:00] I'm super jealous of you because I saw that you have

[01:00:05] already started on your dandelion salve

[01:00:07] and you've been working with your herbs

[01:00:09] already this season and I have yet to see

[01:00:11] one single dandelion in my yard

[01:00:15] that I can go and pluck that little flower

[01:00:17] and make something of so congrats to you

[01:00:21] for making your dandelion salve this year.

[01:00:23] I'm super jealous of you.

[01:00:25] I was actually looking across the street yesterday

[01:00:27] when we were on our date, this man was mo in the yard

[01:00:30] and I was like, don't mo over that.

[01:00:32] Would it be really weird if I ran across the street

[01:00:34] and was like stop!

[01:00:36] I need to pick these flowers.

[01:00:37] I wouldn't have judged you.

[01:00:39] No but I'm sure he would have been like

[01:00:40] all right, great idea.

[01:00:41] Great idea to get your flowers.

[01:00:43] I mean, all I would say in that vein is simply

[01:00:46] like when it comes to content creators,

[01:00:49] the old rule is that there's not a lot of reality

[01:00:53] to television, there's not a lot of reality

[01:00:56] and social media and content creation unfortunately.

[01:00:58] So I would say that when you're looking

[01:01:00] to a content creator for preparedness,

[01:01:04] content or preparedness ideas,

[01:01:07] I really tend to follow the ones that A,

[01:01:10] they're either speaking from experience

[01:01:12] in other words like this is what I was taught.

[01:01:14] I tried it, it works,

[01:01:16] therefore I'm passing it along

[01:01:18] and I also say look for the ones

[01:01:19] that show you their scars

[01:01:21] because like I've made a point over the years

[01:01:23] of coming on matter facts and saying like hey guys,

[01:01:26] I tried this, it was a dumb idea, don't try, don't do that

[01:01:30] because like my point of view is is

[01:01:34] the rising tide floats all boats.

[01:01:37] This community gets better when we share our experiences

[01:01:39] with each other and sometimes those experiences

[01:01:42] are just not gonna be flattering.

[01:01:43] Like we're gonna screw stuff up,

[01:01:45] I'm gonna have to admit to the entire world after,

[01:01:48] you know, the morning after Hurricane Ida,

[01:01:49] it was a moron for not having a chainsaw on hand.

[01:01:53] That's, and by the way boys and girls,

[01:01:55] they mess with me mercilessly for months

[01:01:59] about not having a chainsaw in my moment of weakness.

[01:02:02] You, you incorrigible bunch of jerks.

[01:02:05] But I fixed the problem eventually.

[01:02:08] You did.

[01:02:08] So you know, I just, I think that's important though

[01:02:10] is you have to look at the people

[01:02:12] who are willing to show you their scars

[01:02:13] and say I screwed up, I didn't,

[01:02:15] I was not ready for this or I tried this

[01:02:17] and it didn't work the way I thought it would

[01:02:19] and when you find a person that's that genuine,

[01:02:22] then I feel like they can kind of help you find your path.

[01:02:26] Yeah.

[01:02:27] So my last question for you is,

[01:02:30] what are you most looking forward to from the conference?

[01:02:33] Now that you're the big winner.

[01:02:35] Yeah.

[01:02:36] Yeah.

[01:02:37] I'm really excited about that by the way.

[01:02:41] Two things, definitely as we talked about a second ago,

[01:02:46] one of the courses specifically

[01:02:48] about herbal remedies and things like that.

[01:02:51] I'm always a big proponent of fixing things naturally

[01:02:54] if you can and let's be honest,

[01:02:56] there is a place for modern medicine certainly.

[01:02:59] But you know, modern medicine hasn't always existed

[01:03:04] in the way that it does nail

[01:03:06] and people still were able to heal themselves

[01:03:09] and their family members through old ways.

[01:03:11] So I'm really excited about that particularly

[01:03:14] but one of the things that I'm really looking for

[01:03:17] as far as a takeaway is you don't know what you don't know

[01:03:23] and I'm really interested in hearing

[01:03:25] how other people prep.

[01:03:29] What have I not thought about before that I don't realize?

[01:03:32] You know, I know there's gonna be a lot of discussion

[01:03:35] on the grid going down.

[01:03:39] That is certainly something that I feel

[01:03:41] will probably be one of the most valuable topics

[01:03:45] that we'll be discussed.

[01:03:46] So I'm really looking forward to that.

[01:03:48] But as I said, we're not home stethers.

[01:03:52] We just where we live right now

[01:03:55] we don't have that capacity to truly be home stethers

[01:03:59] 100% in the way that most people think about home stething.

[01:04:03] So we're a little bit limited as far as some of the ways

[01:04:08] in which we can prep as far as that goes

[01:04:11] and I'm really curious to hear

[01:04:13] about the urban and suburban crepping

[01:04:16] and see how those things compare.

[01:04:19] So I think there's gonna be a lot of value

[01:04:21] just across the board from all the sessions

[01:04:24] and I'm really excited to see what things maybe

[01:04:26] I've never thought of before that will incorporate

[01:04:31] into our lifestyle.

[01:04:32] Yeah, like I said earlier,

[01:04:34] I was part of the urban and suburban panel discussion

[01:04:37] and so I got to share about an hour of discussion time

[01:04:42] with gosh, of course I can't remember their names

[01:04:47] but you need to go follow them on Instagram

[01:04:49] but mother, mother,

[01:04:51] mother, mother,

[01:04:53] and prepped like a mother are very much into that

[01:04:59] suburban and urban especially especially

[01:05:03] why can't I remember her name?

[01:05:06] Mother, mother,

[01:05:07] yeah, like her actual name.

[01:05:09] I can't remember her name.

[01:05:10] I've never met her.

[01:05:11] I just follow her content.

[01:05:12] Yeah, she's pretty awesome

[01:05:14] and very straightforward

[01:05:16] and we'll tell you like it is and I love it

[01:05:19] but I'm glad that you're interested in that too.

[01:05:23] I think that is going to hit home with a lot of people

[01:05:25] because most people live in urban and suburban areas

[01:05:28] and it's just like Phoebe's comment earlier,

[01:05:31] where do you prep your stuff if you live

[01:05:33] in an urban or suburban area?

[01:05:35] So yeah, so good.

[01:05:38] I'm glad you're looking forward to those things.

[01:05:40] I'm really excited for this conference

[01:05:44] and I do, I think Allison has done an amazing job

[01:05:48] with putting on such a huge event.

[01:05:51] What it has become a beast and I think that she's

[01:05:56] pretty awesome for taking on such a thing.

[01:05:59] I do have to always give creds to Prepper Camp

[01:06:04] and you know, that's our home away from home in September.

[01:06:07] So there's all sorts,

[01:06:11] I guess what I'm trying to say is there's all sorts of things

[01:06:13] out there and all sorts of events

[01:06:16] and people that are living this lifestyle

[01:06:19] some are very quiet about it.

[01:06:21] A lot of people don't share that they're preppers

[01:06:23] because they don't want to be taken advantage of

[01:06:25] and then some of them haven't quite gotten past the stigma

[01:06:28] of being a Prepper, you know,

[01:06:31] it comes with all sorts of weird thoughts

[01:06:35] and whatever from people but yeah,

[01:06:39] I don't know what else I was gonna say

[01:06:40] but my mind totally went blank so.

[01:06:43] Do you have anything else?

[01:06:44] Why'd you wear a part of the show today, Phil?

[01:06:46] I did have one thing that I can't remember

[01:06:48] if I managed to slip in earlier or not

[01:06:50] but when y'all were talking about like getting started

[01:06:52] prepping and the advice to give to a new Prepper

[01:06:54] like the one thing I always try to encourage people is,

[01:06:57] you know, like prep in the way that fits with your lifestyle

[01:07:01] because if you can't make this a normal everyday part

[01:07:04] of your lifestyle it becomes infinitely more difficult.

[01:07:06] Like if you're at that age where your child

[01:07:10] we've all been there will not eat anything

[01:07:12] but chicken nuggets and the little cups of macaroni cheese.

[01:07:15] Then guess what?

[01:07:16] You prep chicken nuggets and macaroni and cheese

[01:07:18] because that's what your kid'll eat.

[01:07:20] Like if you're on a special diet

[01:07:22] that's what you prep,

[01:07:23] you prep to your special diet.

[01:07:25] If you need, if you have really bad feet

[01:07:28] and I'm not judging because I do too

[01:07:29] and you need lots of foot powder,

[01:07:31] you prep lots of foot powder like

[01:07:33] I don't know a better way to describe it

[01:07:35] than like the simplest way I can tell a person to prep

[01:07:38] is take all of your receipts from the past six months.

[01:07:41] Every time you went to the grocery store

[01:07:42] or the drug store or the home goods store

[01:07:45] everything you bought for the last six months

[01:07:46] is what you probably need for the next six months.

[01:07:48] So by double, out of all that stuff

[01:07:51] and you have six months of stuff to put away.

[01:07:54] Like people want to make preparedness

[01:07:56] into this separate thing I do from my normal life

[01:08:00] and when they do that not only does it

[01:08:03] is it very easy to ride it off emotionally for ourselves

[01:08:06] because it's like well I don't have the money

[01:08:08] to prep right now I have vacation to plan for.

[01:08:10] But like I always tell people and you know

[01:08:12] Gilling and I talk about this to this day

[01:08:14] like to this day I still have a prepper budget.

[01:08:17] I have a line item of my monthly budget

[01:08:19] that is for prepper stuff.

[01:08:20] Maybe that's been radio gear.

[01:08:22] But is that our cat?

[01:08:25] Yeah she's not but this pipe or Heather Dworkles.

[01:08:26] She'll get over herself.

[01:08:28] But you know, that's just one of those things

[01:08:30] that I try to encourage people of

[01:08:31] is that you have to make this a normal part of your day.

[01:08:34] You have to make this a normal part of your lifestyle.

[01:08:36] You have to make this part of your habit

[01:08:38] because preparedness is not an activity.

[01:08:41] It is literally a part of a lifestyle.

[01:08:44] And if you treat it that way, it's not weird.

[01:08:47] It's not something that you oh I sacrificed this

[01:08:49] so I could prep.

[01:08:50] It's like no I prep because I'm a prepper.

[01:08:52] Yeah right.

[01:08:53] And then that lesson sticks with our kids better

[01:08:57] because they grow up knowing at the far

[01:09:00] long because off you run to the mailbox.

[01:09:02] You know they mom in the dust but.

[01:09:05] She did exactly what I'm talking about

[01:09:07] that exact thing at lunch today with our son.

[01:09:09] Exactly.

[01:09:11] She had to tell you what though

[01:09:12] because when I taught her that little maneuver,

[01:09:15] she was like what about you and mom?

[01:09:17] And I said you leave our butts in the house

[01:09:19] and you get your butt to the mailbox.

[01:09:20] So when she blitzed when she blazed past you on the way

[01:09:24] on mailbox, she did exactly what I taught her too.

[01:09:27] I will never forget that as long as I look.

[01:09:30] I just watched her run out of this house

[01:09:32] and I'm like what am I?

[01:09:34] Chofflaver like.

[01:09:36] What about your mom?

[01:09:38] But I got to be like this.

[01:09:40] This thing.

[01:09:41] But we got a big thumbs up from the sheriff's deputy

[01:09:45] and the paramedic that we're in the house.

[01:09:47] That's right, true.

[01:09:49] Oh yeah.

[01:09:50] Anyway just let.

[01:09:51] Just make this part of your lifestyle.

[01:09:54] Make it part of everyday life

[01:09:56] and it's not a weird thing

[01:09:57] and it won't feel like a weird thing

[01:09:59] and you might even have an easier time kind of getting it

[01:10:02] across to those friends and family and neighbors

[01:10:04] that think, you know,

[01:10:06] preppers to the crazy bunker people

[01:10:07] is be like well no I'm not a crazy bunker person.

[01:10:10] I just say that, you know,

[01:10:11] like if I lose my job it'd be nice to have some savings

[01:10:14] or if there's a tornado,

[01:10:16] it'd be nice to have stuff to deal with the tornado, you know?

[01:10:20] Yeah.

[01:10:20] Don't make it a weird thing and it's not weird.

[01:10:22] Yeah.

[01:10:23] Well Holly thank you so much for coming on today.

[01:10:27] I cannot wait to hug your neck in June.

[01:10:30] And then I'll thank God.

[01:10:32] And saying that,

[01:10:33] June is our family matter of facts,

[01:10:36] raising value family camping trip.

[01:10:38] Usually to go in in March or April

[01:10:40] but this year we moved it after school got out

[01:10:43] for the summer.

[01:10:44] There is still time to become a patron.

[01:10:46] You have to be a patron

[01:10:47] to go on the matter of facts

[01:10:49] raising values family camping trip.

[01:10:51] So there is obviously some information

[01:10:53] in the show notes below of how to do that

[01:10:55] and then you'll get an invite

[01:10:57] to be a part of our family.

[01:10:59] Otherwise,

[01:11:01] I think that's it.

[01:11:02] Prepper camp in September.

[01:11:03] Well yeah, Prepper camp is set to be here before we know it.

[01:11:06] Yeah, saloon in North Carolina,

[01:11:08] if you haven't made arrangements yet,

[01:11:12] you're already behind the power curve.

[01:11:15] Yeah, I don't think they have any.

[01:11:17] Well,

[01:11:17] You're gonna be looking for Airbnb's at this point.

[01:11:20] Yeah, I mean,

[01:11:20] you might be going as far as Asheville

[01:11:22] to try to find a place.

[01:11:24] But I would say that like for those

[01:11:26] who are curious about Prepper camp,

[01:11:27] even if you can't make it this year,

[01:11:29] plan to come next year,

[01:11:30] I mean, it's the,

[01:11:31] it is always is at the third or the fourth weekend in September.

[01:11:35] It's the fourth weekend,

[01:11:37] it's the last weekend.

[01:11:38] It's always the last weekend in September.

[01:11:40] It always sells out ahead of the event

[01:11:42] to take it usually going sale right after Thanksgiving.

[01:11:45] And it is like universally,

[01:11:47] it's a great opportunity not just to soak up a ton

[01:11:50] of knowledge from all the subject matter experts

[01:11:52] or teaching classes,

[01:11:54] but quite frankly,

[01:11:55] I've come home from there just meeting with people

[01:11:57] around campfires and sharing a drink with them

[01:11:59] BS and come home with ideas just from there

[01:12:03] because it's not just,

[01:12:05] you know, a thousand people

[01:12:07] that know nothing about preparedness

[01:12:08] and then the teachers.

[01:12:10] I'd say half to three quarters of people

[01:12:13] that come out to Prepper camp,

[01:12:14] they at least have some knowledge of preparedness

[01:12:16] and like you said, Holly,

[01:12:17] they're there to learn the stuff they don't know,

[01:12:19] they don't know.

[01:12:20] So I find very,

[01:12:21] I mean, I've run into people that are everything

[01:12:24] from former SF guys who could run circles around me

[01:12:27] with a firearm all the way to home stethers,

[01:12:29] people that are already living off grid now,

[01:12:33] living off the land because that's just the way

[01:12:34] they live their life.

[01:12:35] So yeah.

[01:12:36] And then of course what the whole show was about

[01:12:39] was the Women Who Prep Conference again.

[01:12:41] It's April 20th through the 23rd.

[01:12:42] It's an online event.

[01:12:43] You don't even have to get out of your pajamas for it.

[01:12:46] And you can purchase those tickets

[01:12:48] through my affiliate link on link tree.

[01:12:50] And I think that's it.

[01:12:52] So we will see you next week for another show.

[01:12:55] Unfortunately, Holly won't be with us

[01:12:57] unless she wants to, but that's okay.

[01:12:59] So thank y'all for joining us today.

[01:13:01] We certainly always appreciate it

[01:13:03] and all the comments that came through

[01:13:05] on all of our comment feeds.

[01:13:06] And we will see you next week.

[01:13:08] Bye everybody.

[01:13:09] Bye.