Living Life in Rural Iowa

In the last week, the media has been reporting the certainty of another lockdown occurring in the next 3-4 months. While we may want to call foul and stomp our feet, this is certainly not the time to be unprepared for the possibility. While news reports have been calling for at least 4-6 weeks of lockdown with a possibility of it lasting longer, we can start (if you haven't already) preparing for this possibility. We don't know how locked down we will be due to that information having not been released yet. However, we can look at other countries around the globe to know what could happen. While most states have undergone some sort of lockdown already, the rules were vastly different from one state to another. With the possibility of national lockdown, we can expect that the rules will be stricter with much different reasoning than a state would have for their rules.  (Yes, I realize some of you haven't come out of the first lockdown yet. Some of you have not experienced a

When a country or an area is going through major upheaval, supply disruptions become inevitable. Whether those supplies are coming from overseas or are produced in your area, you may still have trouble getting food and goods. Trucking companies will rarely haul items to areas they don't feel are safe. Barges may not be able to load or unload. Ships may not be able to leave port. Roads may be blocked and bridges may be destroyed preventing the shipment of goods.  Anything can happen. You should be ready for it or at least not be deluding yourself that it could happen. With the crazy times this country has had this year, you should be expecting it. You can figure out ways to beat it, however. If you are ready for supply disruptions, you can ride it out without any problems. 12 Ways To Beat Supply Disruptions 1. Anticipate them before they happen. If you know major world events are happening on your country's soil, then you know there will likely be supply disruptions. You can al

 In prepping, a lot of people didn't grow up with parents who were prepared. They may have done things we consider prepping because they wanted to save money. Our parents were raised by their parents who more than likely survived the Great Depression and WWII. Those parents were shaped by their experiences. They knew every trick in the book to save money and to fix what they could themselves. They often tried to pass that information on to their kids, but ultimately they wanted their kids to have a life where they didn't have to worry about money.  In my non-writing job, I still deal with these people. Some of them are more frugal than I could ever dream to be. I also call them the original preppers because they never throw anything out that they could use/reuse and they know how to do almost anything skill related. That was just how they had to live.  They lived in some really tough times and without all the technology we have available now. Their stories on how they lived and

We are in an unprecedented time for our generations and this era. We are experiencing things we just thought would be part of our suspicions. Things such as:   Pandemics Economic Downturns (especially for those who went through 2007/2008) Small Businesses Failing Limited Food Supply Presidential Election Year (An ugly one which is saying a lot after 2016) Changing Politics Social Unrest The list could go depending upon your personal experiences.  With these things going on, we should be preparing even more and even harder. We should be next-level prepping with stockpiling more food and supplies. We should be planning on being prepared for 1-2 years if not 5 years. We should be planning to hunker down or move quickly depending on your situation. However, you can already start to see a change in the media. While they are still sticking hard to the coronavirus dialogue, you can see that they are already trying for the feel-good approach again. However, it is not the feel-good approach tha

I have been doing a lot of purging again. Some of the purgings I have been doing have been digital and some of it has been physical. Most of it has been helping my sanity in some way, shape, or form.  I have a tendency to keep a lot of emails and then never really go back to them to do, make, or practice what that email was preaching on that given day. At one point, after cleaning up all my unread emails, I had 1300 read emails in my Yahoo email inbox. Nevermind what is in the 26 folders that I have to "organize" those emails into subjects. I have over 500 unread and read emails in my Gmail account that I use for business.  To say that was insane is an understatement. I have been going through those emails a little bit every day, organizing the kept emails, and writing down/printing the information I want to save for the future. I am down over 300 emails in my Yahoo email. My Gmail still needs work.  (If you have emailed in the past four months, I am not ignoring you. I simpl

If the quarantine has taught me anything in this last year, it has taught me flexibility. I know I have been saying that over the last few posts, but flexibility has been key this year. I would like to think I was flexible before the pandemic, but I have had to reassess that.  One of the things that happened this year was that one of my kids moved back from Sioux Falls and now lives with me. Their situation changed because of the pandemic. Sioux Falls was originally hit hard by the coronavirus and they did not think it was a good place for the little ones to be especially a newborn. Their economy is now feeling the effects of the virus and jobs are harder to find there. With a few other considerations, they made the decision to stay in Iowa for now where they are closer to family. He is still working in Sioux Falls so they are making sacrifices to keep this working. The thing is that I always said that once my kids left home, they weren't coming back. They could come visit, of cour

Hey Everyone! If this year has taught us anything, it has taught us to be flexible. I actually like flexibility because my life would not run without some flexibility even though I still have some routines too. With more flexibility, I have been rethinking how I want to get information, insights, and opinions to you all.  All this summer I have been more than a bit disgusted with the censorship on various social media platforms. While I get a lot of traffic from those social media platforms, I have been making more of an effort to just concentrate on blogging and sending out emails when I get a post published. I also still have been engaging on social media, but I have been putting as much of my attention there. Truthfully, I find most social media mentally draining. I used to use it as a distraction and a mental break. I like to read up on people's lives, see their pictures/videos, and laugh at funny posts/pictures. This year, though, with the virus and the looming elections, I fi