Life PhilosophyPreparedness

A Change in Attitude

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Rourke: I published the following letter a few years ago and upon revisiting it, I felt it was very valid today. Enjoy!

We have lived in Alaska for coming on 8 years now and since coming here we have learned a lot about being prepared. We are survivors from hurricane Katrina and evacuated all the way up here to be with family that we hadn’t seen in years. After arriving we quickly learned that an Alaskan lifestyle is a different one. Let me explain. Things here in our fine state move slowly, the mail, stocks of ammo, and fruit comes in green to ripen at the grocery store. We were used to hot weather most of the year and having a garden almost year-round to experimenting with different tactics to grow anything here. So, prepping here is a tad different for us than our brothers and sisters in the lower 48. We have done a great job on building up a food pantry to not only stay off inflation but in case things get interrupted with the shipping, we have ample to survive awhile. Now, with that said, we face a dilemma most don’t and that is if and when the transportation to our state is interrupted at any point, things here will get dicey.

We have taken a page out of a lot of old-timers books that have lived here for years and paid attention to prices, sales, and things like that to capitalize on building our inventory. Also, coming from a state that had hurricane prep as part of our schooling, we had those kinds of things taken care of, but here with the climate as it is, we were not prepared for the long winters. Sometimes it seems as winter flows right into summer and before you know it, its winter again? A different lifestyle for sure. Anyhow, we have learned that we must keep supplies in our vehicles and ensure we have things to stay warm should we break down somewhere. We also have taken an increased interest in firearms and other weapons that don’t require ammo. This is key, as the prices here are well… crazy. So, we have a backup of a backup just in case.

So, what change in attitude am I writing about? Not ours, but that of our friends and work associates. It’s amazing to talk with the same people now that a year or two ago thought we were out of our minds prepping. We now get phone calls on how to set up a pantry, or firearms to have. We are helping families here understand that prepping just makes good sense and will help you thru even in the toughest of times. Even my commie liberal friends are getting on the wagon. I find this very interesting.

I agree with the masses that I hope that nothing happens to our great country, but just paying attention and reading the news outlets of various places, you get the feeling that something is coming.

In closing, I want to plead with our fellow peppers to reach out to your neighbors and friends and do your best to get them to understand that our way of life is not fanatical but just makes good sense. You will find that now with things as they are, people are more apt to at least listen to you rather than just dismiss you altogether.

May God bless our country and your family.

Steve Dearinger

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6 Comments

  3. John Hancock says:

    Ring of fire, Alaska certainly has a lot to offer when it comes to criteria of a prepper, but it also comes at a cost, prepping for many is overwhelming, a fewer yet truly succeed at being ready enough, I say ready enough because I’ve come to believe that no one is ever fully ready for grid down… it I imagine must be something like being thrown back into the dark ages, unfortunately there was no history recorded during the dark ages, and if there was could we even fathom the words if they were written, yes we for a time at least have modern advantages such as guns, ammo, freeze dried, most of all our knowledge, but how far will the knowledge of the technical age really get us? I mean it takes specialty parts from 8 country’s with advanced manufacturing plants to make one phone! Most of all tech is built the same way, we would be performing a miracle getting just one plant running, such as a power plant for example but that would mean we would need transformers to make it work, those arnt even made here anymore, so our so called modern day advanced knowledge may not amount to jack, in fact it’s the knowledge of a 100 years ago that would probably be worth 20 modern day collage degrees… my drawn out point is in Alaska and other very cold climates it is very challenging making a life there when everything actually works and the world is as rite as rain, it will be a 100 times harder when the grid goes down, yes there are less people, yes there are animals BUT, the hunting seasons they currently have there keeps the animals population in check, meaning no growth, or very little, but without conservation those numbers will fall just like every where else very fast, maybe faster because you have more experienced hunters there per capita than anywhere in the lower 48 yes everything is very very expensive there including food, many people there are hunters, here a steak is 14 a pound there expect 30, imagine how much a 140 pound of meat is worth? Got bullets, you better believe they do, and the know how to get it done, my point is that survival is going to be very very difficult as it is… adding to it the disadvantages of not being able to grow food, or the 30 plus hours of week chopping wood just to stay warm is NOT going to increase your odds of survival, BUT, if you do have tbe resources to put back enough supplies, wood and food to make it for a couple of years then the cold solitude could be your greatest ally, a game of chance if anyone finds you and try’s to take your stuff, but definitely increases your odds of survival because in the end your greatest treat of all is other people, the fewer people there are where you live the better as long as you have the resources….

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  4. Oren says:

    I grew up with a girl who married and then moved to Alaska during the oil boom. They moved back to the lower 48 after the big earth quake in the 60’s. Her sister and her husband stayed. Here in the lower 48 when I have a problem it’s a relatively docile 200 lb black bear in my bird feeder I forgot to take down. In Alaska, near Fairbanks, a 200 lb black bear is like the yard dog compared to some of the brown bears and grizzlies. JoAnne’s sister, who stayed in Alaska had to interrupt a phone call to kill one of the bigger cousins of the black bear. It had for the garbage up, and was heading for the back door. Guess what ever she was cooking the bear wanted a taste. I know the Lower 48 has serious problems, but rather than having to learn a new way of living I’ll be content where I am.

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  5. Jimmy Garland says:

    Every climate will have its challenges. Remove A/C and everything from Florida to Arizona is unsustainable. Do not need A/C in Alaska, but will need heat. So, a wood stove is a must. Food will be a challenge in a grid down situation no matter where you live, bottom line. Like John said above, at the end of the day the biggest threat will be from other humans. The challenges facing someone in Alaska are not any different then those face by someone in Idaho, Montana, or in the New England region when it comes to survival in a grid down situation. For me and my wife its just not about preparedness , but also our overall objective of retirement and our love for this great state.

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