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- [00:02]
A
Are you the reason your prepping efforts might fail? Could your own actions or inactions be setting you up for disaster when a crisis hits? What if, despite all your efforts, you're unknowingly ensuring your survival plan collapses when it matters most?
- [00:31]
B
Welcome to Pract prepping. Today is September 23, 2025, and this is episode 526. This is the prepping podcast with no bunkers, no zombies, and no alien invasion. Just practical prepping, where we teach everyday people how to prepare for life's emergencies. And we're here to help you get prepared. I'm Krista.
- [00:55]
A
And I'm Mark. Remember, we're taking a break from posting new episodes until October 6th, so we've chosen to bring you one of favorite re edited episodes from several years ago. It's 10 things that a Prepper should not do. Now, if you'd like the expanded notes with the list of these 10 things, go to practicalprepping.info 404. Now let's get to the show.
- [01:23]
B
In the midst of all that you're doing as a prepper, did you know there are some things you shouldn't do? The shouldn't do list is extensive, but for today's episode, we've pared it down to 10. No, no' for the prepper. We should take a look at this. And we will.
- [01:40]
A
We'll put this list in the expanded notes and if you'd like Those, go to practicalprepping.info 404.
- [01:49]
B
Now, in my research, I found dozens and dozens of links of what preppers should not do. And for the most part, the advice was pretty sound overall. But I did find a few conflicting things. Like one site would say, always use cash with your transactions. And another site would say, never use cash for your transactions. And then others would say, buy all of your gear first. Your flashlights, your axes, your go bags, your firearms, your batteries. And then others would say, no, buy all that gear last. You know, buy other things first. So I just got to thinking about what I believe would be the at least a starter list of the 10 things that preppers should not do. And what I've done here is I have created three argumentative scenarios for each one. And I'm going to let Mark analyze these as I offer them and see what his advice is to help preppers not do these things.
- [02:46]
A
So you're going to put me on the spot there?
- [02:48]
B
Put you on the spot? I know you have kind of read over the notes in a very general way, but this is really designed to pick your brain and really help some of these preppers because you're a much more experienced prepper and I think from a practical standpoint you can really offer some good, sound advice.
- [03:05]
A
You can jump in here as well. This is a team effort.
- [03:09]
B
Oh, you know I will.
- [03:10]
A
Everything about our life is team effort.
- [03:13]
B
There is no. I had team. I don't know why I said that. Okay, so number one, something a prepper should not do and that is to procrastinate about getting started. You know you're not technically a prepper until you've bought your first pack of four pack toilet tissue. Right. Because you don't buy them one roll at a time. So if you're a prepper, don't procrastinate about getting started. For example, some people would say, well, there's always tomorrow. Isn't that right Mark?
- [03:40]
A
Now this is. If you're not already a prepper, don't procrastinate. William Fortune said we never know when the day before is the day before. So we prepare today for tomorrow.
- [03:53]
B
Exactly. Because why tomorrow is not guaranteed. Correct.
- [03:57]
A
It's not guaranteed. And it's not guaranteed to be a pretty day.
- [04:02]
B
Exactly. Now here's another argument about procrastinating about getting started. And some would say, oh, it's just too expensive to even start prepping.
- [04:10]
A
Well, it doesn't have to be. You can start prepping with two cans of beans.
- [04:15]
B
Yeah, exactly. 79 cents.
- [04:17]
A
You don't have to spend a tremendous amount of money. Keep in mind that when you are building your prepper foods that all you're doing is pre buying what you're going to buy anyway.
- [04:32]
B
Exactly. You do a little shopping in advance.
- [04:34]
A
Exactly. We're buying in advance. Which is a really good hedge against inflation.
- [04:40]
B
It has been for us.
- [04:41]
A
We've been eating some foods that we purchased six months ago, a year ago as Krista rotates those through. And so yes, some of the gear can be expensive. You just have to plan for that. But it does not have to be terribly expensive.
- [05:01]
B
Another one on the procrastination line would be, well, I don't know how or I don't know where to even begin the prepping journey.
- [05:09]
A
Well, you're in the right place. We are practical prepping and we are all about helping you get prepared for whatever may come our way. Now we've got articles on our website. There are a lot of other websites that have articles that deal with prepping. There are YouTube channels that have videos of people prepping and showing you how to build a fire. How to do things and watching these cost nothing. And the learning is there. Now, what I would say when it comes to Internet learning on prepping, compare various places to be sure that they seem to be consistent and go with the consensus. You don't want to be trusting a website that says you don't need to store food. The consensus is we need to store some food. Now, there's disagreement about what kind and how much and all of that. And what we say is start with the things you normally eat. Now, long term, prepping food is great, but it's not the first place to start.
- [06:22]
B
Exactly. Okay, we're going to jump to number two. And that is what a prepper should not do. And that is to store all of your prep supplies in one single location. So here's the argument there, Mark. The prepper would say, well, it's just so much more convenient for me to have everything in one particular spot.
- [06:40]
A
And then one tornado takes it all out or one hurricane takes it all out.
- [06:46]
B
Or get this, you may not even be home when the disaster strikes. What are you going to do if all of your preps are at home and you're 25 miles away at work and you don't have a work bag. Go bag, car bag, get home bag, bug out, bag. What you going to do?
- [07:03]
A
Yes, we have some preps in our vehicles to help us get home if we have to. We have preps in two buildings on our property and we also have some preps 99 miles away.
- [07:17]
B
Yeah, we've got some off premises prep.
- [07:19]
A
Yes, it's more convenient if it's all in one place. As long as everything goes right.
- [07:26]
B
That leads to the second argument. This would be where a would be prepper would say, well, I'm always at home. So that's where my preps are going to be. In very few cases, Mark, is everyone at home literally 100% of the time.
- [07:42]
A
Not 100% of the time. You know, since I've retired, I've been home a whole lot more. Been home 90 hours more every two weeks. But I'm not all. Yeah, I've been underfoot a few times. But anyway, if you're at home and the tornado comes through, you still got the same issue. They're all in one place. If nothing else, store part of it in one end of the house and another part in another end of the house. Get them separate. And the idea behind that is fire. Fire could destroy your preps. And if you've got them split, then it's not likely to destroy more than Half of your food supply unless it destroys your entire house, and we can't necessarily guard against that. But anyway.
- [08:40]
B
But along the lines of storing in one location, what about this argument? Well, I want to try to hide the things that I am storing. I want to put everything under lock and key and don't want anybody to know it, see it, hear it, smell it, taste it, or anything.
- [08:54]
A
Okay, Put it in five gallon buckets. Inside the bucket, put a plastic garbage bag, contractor grade garbage bag. Put your stuff inside that, seal it up, seal the five gallon bucket and bury it in the backyard.
- [09:08]
B
That would hide it, wouldn't it? Yeah. Okay, let's jump over.
- [09:11]
A
It's not so convenient when you need a can of beans, though.
- [09:15]
B
No, that's true. I mean, you really have to think about. That's a good point. Point. How will you access what you need when you need it? So that. That's a good point. All right, Number three on our list is something you should not do, and that is to keep your prep supplies a complete secret from the trusted people in your life and, I. E. Mainly your family. Now, there's some different arguments on that, but we're going to explore that. We fall onto the side of we believe that you should include the trusted people in your life in your emergency plan for preps because you're going to need a trusted inner circle. You're going to need to be able to rely on people. Now, I know for some of you that are listening, you live alone, you don't have family members cohabitating in your same domicile. How's that for verbiage?
- [10:04]
A
But in other words, living in the.
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B
Same house, that doesn't mean you don't have a trusted inner circle of friends and maybe extended family elsewhere. And so the argument there would be, well, I don't trust anybody. So what do you say to that, Mark?
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A
If you don't have anyone that you can trust a little bit, you need to find some new friends.
- [10:24]
B
You might have bigger problems than just prep.
- [10:26]
A
Bigger problem there. We need someone we can trust. And in our case, now we're only telling most of the world that we're preppers. I mean, you know, people say, don't talk about prepping, don't tell anybody you're a prepper. Okay, well, we've told a hundred and something countries that we're preppers. We want to share this. We've written a book about prepping actually too. And we know that if certain things happen, we are going to need help. So our family knows that we Are preppers.
- [11:05]
B
And because of that, many of them are preppers.
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A
Now, about half of them have become preppers.
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B
They've jumped over the line.
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A
And that's great. That's great. And they would never have become preppers had we not shared our prepping experience with them. We don't tell anybody exactly what we have.
- [11:26]
B
Yeah, we keep a lot of the details, certainly to ourselves. I mean, we keep our business. Our business.
- [11:31]
A
But some of the details we don't know. We don't know how many cans beans we have.
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B
I cannot tell you that right now.
- [11:36]
A
So, you know, I have not counted that. It's more than one and it's less than 50,000 and it's less than we need. But you've got to have somebody to trust because it's hard to make it alone.
- [11:50]
B
Well, that would be my next point is that for some that say, okay, you know, I don't trust anybody, Others may say, well, trust isn't my problem. I'm just going to forge ahead by myself and just venture out and make it by myself. I can make it alone.
- [12:06]
A
There are a few people that can do that.
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B
Jeremiah Johnson did.
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A
Jeremiah Johnson did you remember? He had Will gear helped him in the beginning.
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B
That's true. And he also found the Indian woman and the little boy that didn't speak. So he didn't even go alone. But you don't have to be a Jeremiah Johnson in this world to make it.
- [12:24]
A
No, if you do go it alone, it's kind of dangerous.
- [12:28]
B
It can be.
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A
If you get hurt, if you're having a threat of intruders, then somebody needs to be awake on watch. I mean, there's just a lot of things that make it so much easier if they're shared with someone else than with going it alone.
- [12:49]
B
And, you know, along with those lines of not sharing, some people say they want to keep it a secret because they want to keep all of their prep resources to themselves.
- [12:58]
A
Well, that's not a biblical point of view. Now, I do not intend to feed the entire street. I don't intend to feed the entire family. But there are times when we must be sharing with other folks, must be.
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B
Willing to be compassionate.
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A
To be willing to be compassionate. Where that line is drawn, that's a personal choice. There are people that say that they would not share with anyone at any time, and I tend to believe them.
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B
I'm afraid there may be some people in this world, is sad to say, that would turn their own mother away. Are you that kind of person that.
- [13:44]
A
That'S what I'm thinking there now, it's not like we can take the family down the street in for the long haul.
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B
I understand. Yeah.
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A
But if we're in a five or six day snowstorm with a power outage, what's the problem with sharing some food with them?
- [14:01]
B
Exactly. So you know. Yeah. In a sense, we are our brother's keeper and we do need to maybe prep for ourselves and a few more. I think that biblical compassionate thing.
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A
And there are people that prep with the intent of being able to bless other people.
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B
Now we're not sitting here saying you have to do that. No, we're saying that a conscientious prepper actually does have others on their mind as well.
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A
Exactly.
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B
What's the good of prepping for a world if you're going to be all by yourself?
- [14:33]
A
And what does sharing our preps mean? Let's look at that. One of our daughters during The Blizzard of 93 had 11 people sleeping in her living room because she had a fireplace and no one else around there. And she found two people sleeping in the car on the street. So she took them home. Yeah, there can be some danger with that. But this was folks that lived right there in her neighborhood and she gladly shared her heat or the ability to have heat with them. So that's just. You need to look at this from all angles and there'll probably be less sharing if the whole grid goes down.
- [15:22]
B
Well, you know you're talking about a doomsday scenario.
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A
Exactly. But I've not seen one of those.
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B
Right.
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A
And I've been around the sun 66 and a half times. I don't see that.
- [15:35]
B
Exactly. Okay, let's jump over here to number four, what you should not do, and that is to avoid training and particularly where it involves any medical treatment or firearms type of training. You need to have some training and some of the arguments against it. Here's an argument that someone might offer against training. Well, I can just open up a book and read what I need to know. What do you say to that, Mr. Paramedic Law Enforcement Officer?
- [16:06]
A
Getting it out of a book. Doing CPR is not the time to do that. Trying to stop arterial bleeding is not the time be reading about it. These are things that we need to know ahead of time. Trying to figure out how to load a firearm under pressure is not the time to be reading about it.
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B
Exactly.
- [16:26]
A
We need to have that training beforehand. Medical and firearms are two of the big key things that we need to be training on. Now. There's a lot of things we need to learn and some things we need to train on, but we're talking, this.
- [16:44]
B
Is a life or death.
- [16:45]
A
These can be life or death. So if it deals with medical or it deals with firearm, get some training. Even if it's basic first aid, they will teach you how to stop arterial bleeding. And honestly, in enough quantity, arterial bleeding kills you.
- [17:05]
B
And we've talked about CPR on several of our podcasts. There's two kinds. There's adult CPR and there's infant cpr.
- [17:12]
A
Oh, yeah.
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B
If you're a parent and you've got babies and you've got like babies in your life, if you're a grandparent, you need to learn infant cpr because it's an entirely different process. Now here's another argument. Oh, medical or firearms training? I'll just rely on other people to take care of that issue. What if you're the only one on the scene and there's a victim laying there?
- [17:32]
A
What are you going to do that? And what if you are the one that is injured and no one else is around? There are ways to bandage yourself up. What if there's a conflict situation and your life is put in danger? You know, they say when seconds count, police are minutes away. I've heard that, and I understand it because I've been there. Trying to get to a serious call, running lights and siren and about as fast as we dare go. And it's still taking 15 and 20 minutes because of the distance that we're away or the number of calls that are backed up. Sometimes there are no units available to go on that particular call. Now, they do a good job of getting somebody cleared up as quickly as they can, but it does happen. So we have to be our own first responders, both in medical and in self defense.
- [18:38]
B
Here's another one that I've heard a lot of times in different forums regarding the training of medical or firearms. And that is if I just possess the gear, that's really all I need to have. Right.
- [18:50]
A
Well, I'll bring up the Baofeng UV5R radio.
- [18:55]
B
Okay?
- [18:56]
A
That is the ham radio. It will also function in pretty much any VHF radio. I read something not long ago about a guy telling his friend that he had one just in case. So his friend pulls it out and says, okay, make it operate. The guy figured out how to turn it on, but he had had no training, no learning, no experience with it, and so he was not able to make it operate. There's other gear just like that. When we purchase gear, we need to practice with it. We need to learn how to use it, because just having the gear may not be enough. And that's why we advocate getting that ham radio license so that you have the license to practice, the license to learn. You may just find it's fun. It's just. Oh, yeah, it's just downright fun. Especially if you get in a group and do things together. There's a lot of fun. You learn to operate your radio because after the fact, the instructions on that baofeng are written in chinglish. And if you don't already know what they're talking about, it's hard to figure out from that particular instructions.
- [20:25]
B
You've even said, so you have a bao fang radio. Find a frequency, go. And it's like, how do you know how many frequencies are on any given radio?
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A
Well, there's probably a mathematical way to figure that out. But take this out of the box and get it to 146.50. I'm waiting for your call. Put it on 146.50.
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B
Yeah. If you don't know how to dial up a frequency, you're not going to be able to use that bao fang radio.
- [20:59]
A
And you can't just make them up because people aren't hanging around where you made it up. Now. I just used 146.500. That's not the best place to be calling for help. The national calling for frequency is 146.520.
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B
So you know that.
- [21:18]
A
So I know that. So that is where. If I'm operating on Simplex, then that's the place I'm going to start looking. If I know how to program a repeater in, I'm going to be looking for the repeaters in the area that I'm in. And you need to know how to access them. You need to know how to program it.
- [21:38]
B
Exactly. We're going to hit number five. And that is something a prepper should not do, which is to focus only on the doomsday scenarios, you know, the end of the world as we know it kind of thing. And some of them will say, here's their argument. Well, hey, Mark, you know, looking around at the world we're in right now, this world is gonna just blow up at any minute.
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A
It could.
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B
Have you heard that before?
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A
I've heard it before, actually.
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B
I've heard that a lot.
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A
I actually saw posted in a forum one time, someone came in and asked what day the apocalypse was going to start.
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B
They were like, they wanted a date.
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A
So there was conflicting answers in there. Some was next Tuesday Some was last year, you know.
- [22:31]
B
100 years from now.
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A
Now we have not had to go through a Teoto talkie, the End of the World as we know it, one of those doomsday scenarios, a lot of.
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B
Movies about it, a lot of movies.
- [22:45]
A
And those movies can be fun to watch sometimes. But we have gone through Hurricane Hugo. We went through the Blizzard of 93. We went through a worldwide pandemic. A worldwide pandemic. We went through a tornado damage here April 11th. Well, April 27th, 2011, we did that one. I still have some PTSD from that one. But we went through 1 Just about two weeks ago, a week and a half ago right here that went over and we shared with you how we used our preps in that four hour power outage. And you know, if it had been a 40 hour power outage, we'd have been just as good. If it had been three weeks, four weeks, we would have been fine. We were prepared. We just worked our plan and it worked great.
- [23:41]
B
Here's some. Well, here's something another one might, might say, which is something you should not do and that is to regard ordinary everyday threats as quote, not that serious compared to a doomsday scenario.
- [23:56]
A
Well, that might be true. A four hour power outage is not as serious as a grid down.
- [24:04]
B
But what's more likely to happen?
- [24:05]
A
The four hour. But what if someone is on life saving equipment? What if someone has to be on oxygen all the time? What if someone has to have suction available all the time and they can do home dialysis? Now a lot of people do that. How serious it is really depends on how serious it is to you.
- [24:31]
B
Exactly. And so in the, the mathematical likelihood of a grid down worldwide, the end of the world as we know it compared to power outage or flooding, wind or storm damage, those kinds of things, what's more likely to happen and what's more likely to happen to you?
- [24:51]
A
Yeah, that, that percentage comes out zero point, a whole bunch of zeros and a one as far as the doomsday thing. But I can pretty much guarantee that we're all going to go through some type of scenario, that prepping would help us. We've gone through several. One was when we went from two incomes to one income. Our prepper closet let us eat for a considerable period of time. And so there's all kinds of issues.
- [25:24]
B
Another one that comes to mind regarding the doomsday scenario focus is that some preppers believe that all of their energy and thought processes should be dedicated to how am I going to help Rebuild society. They're looking at this huge matrix of, you know, the brave new world. Everything you ever knew before gone. And that they're putting their entire focus and energy on how to create that new Earth society. Is that where a prepper should be funneling their energy?
- [26:03]
A
No, because the average prepper is not going to be able to do anything about that. That is going to be a whole different situation. We won't be here.
- [26:15]
B
You're talking about like death on a cataclysmic scale.
- [26:19]
A
Death on a cataclysmic scale. A total grid down situation. It's been estimated that approximately 90% of people would die within one year from a cataclysmic event like an EMP or.
- [26:36]
B
A nuclear something or other.
- [26:38]
A
Any of those societal changing.
- [26:40]
B
The planet killer.
- [26:42]
A
Yeah, but a societal changing event, it's estimated would take out 90% of the population in one year.
- [26:50]
B
So you're saying that rather than try to focus on the what ifs and the what comes afters on that scenario, steer yourself back to a more practical application.
- [27:01]
A
Yeah. Focus on the what we know will happen. Yeah.
- [27:04]
B
And what has already happened and how people dealt with it and how you can also deal with.
- [27:10]
A
And that depends on your location. Now for us it is tornadoes. That, that's the number one thing. Normally when we get a snow here in north Alabama it's over by 10 or 11 o'. Clock.
- [27:24]
B
Four to six hours tops.
- [27:25]
A
Yeah, and we got one last year, year before that was two days. But people were out driving. They were able to move around. It's not like still the Arctic Circle Exactly. But we are not concerned here about major earthquakes or volcanoes. There have been a few small earthquakes here and it's just the floor rumbles is the kind of thing you get. The volcano. I have no idea where our nearest volcano is. I know it's not anywhere where we need to be concerned about. Yeah, they talk about Yellowstone could blow up. That's a whole different ballgame. What's the odds of that? What's the odds of that actually affecting us right here? I don't know. Other folks live in earthquake prone areas. So you need to be preparing for your type of emergencies. The next thing that a prepper should not do is not having an emergency plan in writing.
- [28:33]
B
You know we've talked about that on several episodes where a lot of folks are putting their emergency plan on the computer and then downloading that to a thumb drive. Great idea. So long as you have access to a computer in the future that will allow a random thumb drive to be placed into it. A lot of more people are getting real squirrely about that.
- [28:53]
A
Yeah, just go one step further and print it out.
- [28:57]
B
Exactly.
- [28:58]
A
And have it print it out. Stick it in a file folder, stick it in a binder, whatever.
- [29:02]
B
It won't be device dependent.
- [29:04]
A
Exactly. Things could happen. There's no way to predict these disasters.
- [29:09]
B
Well, that's actually an argument where some preppers have actually said, look, you can't predict a disaster. Well, I hear. I'm here to tell you that I can predict that disasters will happen.
- [29:19]
A
Yes. And I can predict what they could be. And where I was going with this one is that if all of a sudden a water line in this house breaks, you need to know how and where to turn off the water.
- [29:34]
B
Yes. Because it could be three hours before the first plumber could come by and.
- [29:38]
A
You really don't want all that water running out in your floor. And that reminds me, we have a T for turning that off. Now you know where the tools are and the wrenches are. But I don't think you'd know where that tee is. And I think I need to show you this afternoon where that is and to make sure you know where to go to get that.
- [29:59]
B
Okay.
- [29:59]
A
To turn that water off, you need to have this written down. And if you live with anyone else above the age of 8 and below the age of 108, you need to share that information with them, let them know. And our 8 year old grandson could have easily turned the water off if his grammy needed him to.
- [30:24]
B
Oh, absolutely.
- [30:25]
A
You'd need that emergency plan in writing. And it's the sop. It's the standard operating procedure. This happens, we do this, this happens, we do that.
- [30:37]
B
You know, that gives people a lot of peace of mind, right? Here's another argument that of what you should not do when it comes to not having your emergency plan in writing is the thought of, hey, you know, the government's going to just take care of me. They'll supply all of my needs. Isn't that what the government's supposed to do?
- [30:55]
A
Well, I can't say what I'm thinking because we've promised you we would be a family friendly program. And if I said, if I said what I was going to say or thought in reference to the government meeting our needs, there'd be a beep right here. We've gone back, we've talked about this before. FEMA does a good job of what they do once they get set up. And I've worked with FEMA on disaster relief a number of Times people misunderstand.
- [31:29]
B
Though, what FEMA is supposed to do.
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A
They will facilitate and they will pay the bill. And that's why a lot of times when FEMA gets to town, you've got one or two people.
- [31:39]
B
Yeah, they're not coming with chainsaws and shovels.
- [31:42]
A
No. They're not bringing food to your door. But what I have seen in my travels in disaster relief over the years is that it takes FEMA approximately nine days to get set up.
- [31:59]
B
That's a long time when you're in crisis.
- [32:01]
A
Exactly. And there are other groups that come in. There are faith based groups that come in and begin to do what they do. But we've got to be prepared to make it until those other supply lines get into place.
- [32:16]
B
Which brings me to my next argument about not having the emergency plan in writing. Some preppers may say, you know, in the middle of a disaster I can just assess what. I'll just know what I need to do right there and then when the disaster is taking place.
- [32:30]
A
I've actually been on the scene with some well trained professional folks that were dealing with disasters and I have seen them because of fatigue and because of overload, literally not know what to do next because of the fatigue and the stress of that moment. And they're professionals and they were the ones that were paid to do that. If we have a situation, we may be overwhelmed. I like to think that I can be pretty cool in those kinds of situations, but I could be fatigued, I could be overwhelmed, I could be somewhat emotional because you could even be injured.
- [33:13]
B
For all you know.
- [33:14]
A
Yeah, and if I'm injured, somebody else got to do it anyway. But that's another thing. If I'm injured, somebody needs to be able to work on me because professional help may not get here for a while that has to be prioritized. But back to what I was saying is I would like to think that I can open a folder and say, okay, here's what I need to do. And this is where that piece is located.
- [33:40]
B
You know, having it in writing actually can focus a scattered mind in that middle of that situation.
- [33:47]
A
That's the whole point of what I'm saying here. And that's a very, very good way of putting it, that it being written down can focus a scattered mind.
- [33:56]
B
Let's move on to number seven of what you should not do. And here's my thing. If you've listened to me any length of time, you're already going to know what my number one prep item is to have. And this goes for Every prepper anywhere on the globe. The number one thing you need to be storing is water. And if you're not storing enough water, it could be you have the argument of, hey, my utilities will always work. I can always turn on the tap and get water. Isn't that true, Mark?
- [34:28]
A
That is said, yes. But I remember this long list of cities that you read out one time that it was still working, but there was the do not drink order that was put out with that.
- [34:43]
B
There was some in Michigan that the utility company switched it off.
- [34:48]
A
There were.
- [34:49]
B
Yeah.
- [34:50]
A
And that was to protect people because the water was not fit to drink at that time. I think it was Flint, Michigan.
- [34:57]
B
I believe it was one. Yeah.
- [35:00]
A
But not long ago, there was another one that had a do not use until they were able to get it straightened out and drained out.
- [35:10]
B
There were some in Alabama that had that going on.
- [35:13]
A
The utility still worked, but the water was not safe to drink.
- [35:18]
B
Okay, so that brings me to argument number two on this. Well, I can just buy water anywhere, anytime. Isn't that always true?
- [35:25]
A
As long as you get it before the disaster? Because the first thing that happened in all of those cities and the first thing that happens after any type of disaster is the shelves of water go bare.
- [35:40]
B
Or what if the shelves are already bare before the disaster? You know, we have lived long enough to see supply chain issues. You cannot guarantee that you can buy water anywhere, anytime. You just can't. Now here's the next one. Oh, well, okay. Whatever water I can source, I can just boil the water and I'll always be able to have clean water because I can boil it. So here's my question. Are you always going to be where you can boil water?
- [36:08]
A
You're not always going to be where you can boil water. But also boiling, it does not get heavy metals out of it. It does not get. And you may be hearing thunder in the background.
- [36:19]
B
I heard. The cat heard it, too.
- [36:21]
A
He's heard it. And we've actually had to hit pause a couple of times because of the NOAA weather radio back here warning us of severe thunderstorms. But each time I check the radar and where we're actually sitting, we're safe for a little while. We've got a little bit longer to go before it gets to here. But back to what I was saying, there are some things that boiling does not take out of the water. So we need to have some type of filtration system or at least run it through cotton cloth to get, I call it the chunkies out of it to get the particulate matter, to get the particulate matter and stuff like that. And so boiling is not always an option or it's not always enough. Store your water, have a way to filter it.
- [37:12]
B
All right. So number eight of what you should not do is to go into debt. Buying your gear and supplies. And some have said, well, there's a lot of fear mongering going on. I kind of got scared. You know, I took $1,000 out of savings and I only had $900 in there and I bought a bunch of stuff. So what say you to that?
- [37:33]
A
Do not go into debt for prepping. End of story. Just. That's it. But people will do it. To each his own, I guess. But going into debt is not good financial preparedness.
- [37:47]
B
Well, what about those that say, well, I want to keep up with all the gearheads out there, like the newest, latest, greatest gadgets and devices that are out there to help my prepping journey? I mean, I guess you need to ask yourself, what need do you have for, you know, a 10 ton auger? You know, unless you're a professional well driller, I don't think you need to run out and buy one.
- [38:10]
A
The thing with this is old and simple.
- [38:15]
B
Works always has.
- [38:17]
A
We went with a very simple way to be able to do most of the stuff that we do. There are some cool gadgets out there. Call it tactical, you know, tactical. I want a pair of tactical socks.
- [38:32]
B
Yeah. And you know, again, we're not, we are not saying that there's anything inherently wrong with those items. It's the whole idea of losing your bank account over it. That's what we're saying.
- [38:44]
A
Yeah. Or trying to keep up with the next guy. He's got five of these and I've only got three. Okay. You can only, you know, you only need one at a, a time.
- [38:53]
B
Right.
- [38:54]
A
You do need a backup. But do not go into debt for prepping. It's that simple. You know, here's one that I've actually heard folks are talking about. When it hits the fan, go down and max out your credit cards. Because society is going to collapse and you won't have to pay it back.
- [39:16]
B
Oh, right.
- [39:18]
A
Guarantee you that at some point they're coming after their money.
- [39:23]
B
Society won't collapse that far. Okay. Yeah.
- [39:26]
A
And it creates a false sense of security. What you've done is you've become prepared in food, but you've become very unprepared in finance.
- [39:38]
B
Yeah. You know, you may need to have that cash and that security.
- [39:41]
A
Exactly. Or not have the debt, not have The.
- [39:44]
B
Exactly.
- [39:45]
A
If we can go through life not having debt, life is good. It really is. And anyway, that's a whole nother podcast. But do not go into debt for prepping.
- [39:58]
B
Number nine on our list of things that you should not do, and that is to not rotate your consumables into daily use. Some people believe that they've got a fine and very distinct line between what they use every day in their pantry and then the foods and products that they have stored in their prepper pantry almost become an untouchable inventory.
- [40:22]
A
That might be fine with some of the 25 year foods. That's what they're designed for. And if you're trying to stock up three years of food, you cannot rotate that food quick enough. And folks say that, you know, well, you don't need to even pay any attention to the best buy date. There's some truth to that. Some canned goods you can eat well past the expiration date. But how long do you want to go past that expiration date?
- [40:55]
B
Right.
- [40:56]
A
If we're rotating our food, there's no need to be eating food that's quote unquote expired or four years beyond that. Best buy date.
- [41:06]
B
Yeah. You should just kind of rotate it into your daily use and then replace back into your prepper pants.
- [41:11]
A
Exactly.
- [41:12]
B
Well, here's another thing that some preppers will say about not rotating their consumables. And it's because they've got this idea that they want to maintain this huge inventory in their prepper supplies. And so therefore they don't want to go in there and rotate it out because it would diminish their prepper supply. And it'll only diminish if you never restock it.
- [41:35]
A
Exactly. Here's the thing. How much are you going to eat? You pull out your normal amounts and you replace with your normal amounts plus two.
- [41:45]
B
It's very reasonable.
- [41:46]
A
It really is.
- [41:48]
B
And here's another one. Hey, you know, food in cans and food in bags, they literally last forever, right? Be.
- [41:57]
A
No, they don't.
- [41:58]
B
Even the oldest, most vintage canned food at some point is going to go into decay.
- [42:04]
A
It's going to get beyond where I want to eat it.
- [42:08]
B
I kind of share this with you. I saw a video of a lady and she opened a can of pineapples, you know, chunk pineapples, and she poured the liquid out. And the liquid was black tar. I mean, it was black. The pineapples were the right color. And she poured black water out of the can. Now, would you eat that?
- [42:25]
A
That's probably a little past what I would want to eat.
- [42:29]
B
As my mama would say, I wouldn't slop the hogs with it.
- [42:32]
A
True.
- [42:33]
B
I would not.
- [42:34]
A
Those foods do not last forever. So be rotating them and it's fine to build a huge inventory. There's no problem. There's. But don't build it bigger than what you can rotate. And if you get to that point, then you need to be looking at that 25 year storage food. You really do. And it's good to have some of that on hand anyway. We do. And we probably won't see the end of that 25 years, you know, and need it.
- [43:04]
B
But we didn't start there. We started with our regular types of foods we would normally buy. And we did it very small amounts along. Two cans here, three cans there, two bags here, three bags there.
- [43:14]
A
And we started with the budget way that we had to start at that particular point in time.
- [43:20]
B
Yeah, we were on one income.
- [43:21]
A
We were on. Yeah. And thankfully we had started a little bit before that and we had enough to get us through for a little bit to be able to supplement what we were able to purchase. This next thing is really, really serious. Do not lose hope, do not give up, and do not quit.
- [43:41]
B
And I think the reason some preppers kind of put their toe into that lake, so to speak, is because they may have lived long enough to have never experienced a real big disaster. So in their frame of mind, they've lulled themselves into thinking, you know, I've prepped all these years and nothing cataclysmic has ever happened to me. So I guess I'm just wasting time. I'm going to give up on this.
- [44:06]
A
Well, when you give up, it sneaks up.
- [44:08]
B
It'd be like the very next day, you know, a tree falls on your roof.
- [44:12]
A
Yeah, it just. Disasters do happen. And I know that some folks don't get support from their family. We just need to go on. We just need to keep on keeping on. We need to keep prepping. There are those that believe that it's considered hoarding.
- [44:31]
B
Hey, I'll just be honest with you if you're listening and you've never had a cataclysmic disaster in your life.
- [44:36]
A
That's great.
- [44:36]
B
God bless you. You have been blessed and highly favored. But friend here, listen, I'm telling you that flat tire is in your future, the job lot. God forbid. God forbid. I hope you can get all the way through life without a cataclysmic disaster. But among the nearly 8 billion people that inhabit this globe, there's going to be 7,999,999 who are going to experience something for which they're going to need preparedness.
- [45:09]
A
Exactly. It's going to happen.
- [45:11]
B
Don't lose hope on that. Don't lose hope in yourself as a prepper. And don't worry if people want to label you a hoarder or. Or irresponsible. What?
- [45:22]
A
Your powers blinking on and off. And our power's gone off almost here. But talking about the hoarder thing. Yeah, we address that. And in episode four. 01, that was just about two and a half weeks ago that we addressed that. So if you think it's hoarding, go listen to that episode, it's are you a prepper or are you a hoarder? Preppers are not hoarders.
- [45:44]
B
Right. So we would just want to tell you that the 10 things that you should not do have been compiled as a list for you to be able to go back in and evaluate your journey as a prepper against this list. Have any of these 10 shouldn'ts ever crossed your mind? And in what ways do you know for certain that you're on the right track when it comes to preparedness? I want to ask you this, too. Can you think of any other additional things that really preppers shouldn't do? I would really be interested in hearing your thoughts. Please email us if you'd like to add anything to that list.
- [46:20]
A
And today's cup of coffee comes from Todd.
- [46:23]
B
Yay, Todd.
- [46:24]
A
Todd, we really appreciate it. And right now I am drinking my cup of coffee out of my prepping mug, which says stuff happens. Stay prepared. It is delicious. And we certainly do appreciate that.
- [46:39]
B
Thank you, Todd.
- [46:40]
A
Thank you, Todd. And if you receive value from the podcast, would you help us by giving back a little by buying us a cup of coffee? You'll find the link on the front page of the website.
- [46:51]
B
And remember now, say it with me. Stuff happens.
- [46:55]
A
Stay prepared, and we'll see you next time. Sam.