Health Update: I appreciate all the well-wishes. The latest update is I’m getting stronger and feeling better. I still have the drain on my side which severely limits my activities and is impeding my recovery. I have an appointment with the surgeon on Thursday to review the results of my last CT scan(taken on Tuesday) and to review whether or not the drain will be removed or left in for another week or so.
I have no health insurance and with 6 days spent in the hospital, the medical bills are going to be huge. I’ve had a few people reach out and suggest I start a GoFundMe page. Originally I said no. I absolutely hate asking anyone for anything. Now – I’m always willing to help others and go out of my way for someone in need. Me asking for help? I’ve never been comfortable with that. Just the way I am.
I decided to go ahead and do it. I’ll post a link to the GoFundMe page soon. It’s tough out there and many of us are on tight budgets. With that in mind, any donations are very much appreciated. If someone can’t donate sharing the GoFundMe page with family and friends on social media would be fantastic and very helpful.
Oh – something important: Many of you already know or suspect John Rourke is not my real name. This is true. John Rourke has been a “pen name” for well over 12 years. My real name is Keith Wilkins. What’s interesting is I’ve made friends with several readers of this and my previous site and they continued to call me “John” even after learning my real name. I’m good either way.
As GoFundMe requires you to use your real name I thought this would be a good time to come clean. Now – moving forward I will continue to use my pen name – John Rourke.
Again – thanks for the prayers and well-wishes.
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Maine Prepper Girl has been out working on the garden while I have been a bit hobbled. I love these galvanized raised beds, It’s still too early to plant here in Maine, but, a few weeks from now we should be good to go.
We bought a chicken coop and a large cage to put it in. Hopefully, by the end of this weekend, we’ll have the coop put together.
We have some “Supersoil” being delivered to fill the raised beds. This will get us off to a good start.
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Look at these numbers. There’s a reason behind this and it’s not good.
I think I’ll go watch Red Dawn…….
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Maine Prepper Girl(aka Kass) has been on a kick making things leaning towards the all-natural. Above she made some all-natural real vanilla extract. I’m going to ask her to write up how she did it. These are freshly bottled and haven’t started changing color yet.
She just completed some Almond Extract as well!
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Stay safe all and please…..keep preparing.
Rourke
Welcome to A Survival Story. What follows is a fictional daily journal written by "Jed". Jed is a 39-year-old man who lives in the small city of Rock Hill, South Carolina. Jed recently started thinking about his life and the mistakes he has made. He has decided to start keeping a journal to organize his thoughts and try to understand not only where he has been but where his life is going. Jed begins this journal at a time in his life when he is considering whether he will ever meet "the one" and has just scheduled a trip to attend his 20-year high school reunion.
Jed is relatively physically fit as he has been working out with weights, takes martial arts, and rides his mountain bike periodically on some light trails. He would like to lose about 15-20 pounds but is not overly concerned about it. Jed is 5' 10" tall and 205 pounds with very short brown hair. Both his parents have passed and his younger brother Eric moved in with him a couple months ago. Jed has always felt the need to care for his brother since his parents are no longer around. He has been an active survivalist for the last several years - especially since 9/11. He has stocked up on a lot of supplies with an emphasis on the basics of "beans, bullets, and band-aids". The few people that know of Jed's concern for the future dismiss his "prepping" as a hobby and a fad. Jed takes it seriously, however, he is not fanatical about it and enjoys many of life's comforts like anyone else. Jed recently purchased a 2011 black Jeep Wrangler 4-door - a rare splurge for himself.
See how Jed and his community deal with multiple attacks across the United States. Here we begin....... a survival story.
Each book comes personally signed by the author.
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Glad things are looking up all around! I tried the raised beds a few years ago, and once you get the initial dirt in them they work well. I took last year off, but I have my seedlings all ready to go as soon as we stop having these cold nights.
I wasn’t as smart as you and didn’t put plastic under mine. The weeds growing around them are a nightmare.
hey bro, get well soon!