Happy New Year!!

Proverbs 29:18 says "Where there is no vision, the people perish", ifyou lack "vision" or a plan for the future, you will perish, no matterwhat endeavor you undertake in life.  Habakkuk 2:2 says " Write the vision andmake it plain on tablets, that he may run who reads it."  inother words,  when you begin to develop vision for your future you need a written plan, not just something you pull outof the air when a need arises.

I have been pondering how best to present an avalanche of information that is poised to overtake me as I attempt to make everything as simple yet as complete as possible.  The presentation of this material I believe should be organized in order to aid in searches and scalable in order to be able to make progress in the steps needed to accomplish the goal of independence from government's "help" in times of crisis that we all may face someday in one form or another.  This is what we will call "Eating the Elephant".

Elements for Living

Most authorities will break down the essentials to survival as being Food, Water, and Shelter.  I am going to go further in order to maintain our desired result of independence (living, not just surviving) and add 3 more categories, First Aid, Financial Health, and Protection. 

So here are my Categories for Living:

• Food
• Water
• Shelter
• First Aid
• Financial Health
• Protection

Crisis Time Line

Again, most authorities will advise that you prepare for post crisis self sufficiency for 72 hours, or 3 days.  This I believe is not sufficient, just take a look at the chaos of New Orleans after Katrina.  In order for us to "Eat the Elephant" I am going to try to address crises via a Crisis Time Line.  This time line will allow for scalability, the ability to add to previous preparations.  This makes preparation an orderly process that can be undertaken in small steps. 

That said, I believe 14 days, or 2 weeks should be the minimum Crisis Time Line anyone should have.  I will address the following Crisis Time Line time periods.  As D-Day approached during WWII many preparations were made.  D-Day was the event, but then additional logistics were needed to win the war, each day being counted via D+ x, so therefore I am going to borrow from history and name my time periods from Crisis day forward, or C-Day and C+x.    Again, these are to manage basic preparations broken into "Bites" that we can then address. 

My Crisis Time Line time periods:

• C-Day   -  Day actual Crisis occurs plan
• C+3       -  3 day plan post crisis
• C+14     -  2 week plan post crisis
• C+30     -  1 month plan post crisis
• C+90     -  3 month plan post crisis
• C+180    -  6 month plan post crisis
• C+365    -  1 year plan post crisis

Summary

You may look at the presentation of this information as an X-Y axis graph.  X will be the Crisis Time Line, Y will be the preparedness needed for each Element for Living.  As time increases along the Crisis Time Line X axis, you want to have your preparedness to be an upward curve as we build upon the previous Elements for Living.

We will offer suggestions for each point along that X-Y graph, a benchmark if I may, of what preparedness you should be striving to achieve.

This blog is to provide that insight and we will cross label our category entries so you can find them either by Elements for Living categories or Crisis Time Line categories.

Thank you once again for taking time to read through and spend your valuable time learning how to prepare for LIVING!!

May God bless you and cover you with His love, mercy, and grace.

Hello and welcome.

I have been wondering around for about 10 years reading up on all the disaster preparedness planning literature, searching various "survival" discussion boards for advice, and collecting useful and useless information and items to help implement my family's "disaster response plan".  A crisis has a different interpretation for each person.  If you have just been flooded out of your house, the flood is a crisis, if you sell life boats, the flood is an opportunity.  Crises may come in different shapes and sizes for lack of a better description.  How you approach a crisis, either prepared or unprepared, I believe determines your viewpoint and eventual actions during the crisis.   

My goal will be to use my experience and knowledge to help sift through the various camps of thought and innumerable products available and boil them down to their essential oils.   One of my gifts is my ability to research and evaluate things and then present a concise summary that can be understood in layman's terms , I call it "bringing the cookies down to the kids", or get down to the brass tacks.  No nonsense opinions, and they are that, my opinions.  I am not so bold to think that the sun rises and sets upon me.  I am human, and in such, I will have biases, known or unknown, but I acknowledge that to you my reader now.  No hidden agendas, I  just hope to be a source you can trust for honest answers. 

If you are overwhelmed by all the choices and are frozen in inaction because of the mountain of information before you remember this oldAfrican saying, "You eat an elephant one bite at a time."  Sometimes when I'm in over my head and it seems too difficult with all the tasks anddecisions before me I take a deep breath and remind myself of that simple little truth, break out my fork, and begin eating right where Iam.

Fear is a motivator for some, and it may have been the starting point of your search for answers,  but it will handicap and kill you if you let it control your emotions and decisions.  I am unashamedly a follower of Jesus Christ and through Him I fear nothing.  My own search for these answers began after prayer one day.  I do believe the Bible to be absolutely true, that Christ is returning, and as the Bible fore-tales, things are going to get worse before that day.  That said, I'm a glass half full kinda guy, an optimist's optimist.  You can really be freaked out by everything that is going on in the world today or you can trust in God and prepare yourself.  I am not a proponent of running off to the mountains being a "chicken little" or hunkering down in my backyard shelter waiting for the end.  My personal interpretation of what I am to be as a Christian is that when everything is going to pot, like it will, I am to take care of my family and anyone else who has need as I have ability to.  Thus planning becomes even more important for me in order to reach out to others in a time of crisis.  This may not be your motivation, and I understand that, but I thought it important to give you the basis of my motivation, the Love of Christ inside of me. 

I have one problem though with "survival" websites and the whole "survivalist" culture, that is their motivation is only to survive and is based in fear.   I can't accept that, I am told by Jesus in John 10:10 - "The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. Ihave come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly."   I therefore base my life on the fact that even in the face of disaster I may have a full and abundant life.  It changes your mindset from a mentality of fear and being a victim to one of fearlessness and being a victor!  This blog will do nothing but remind you that you are a victor and that we are going to LIVE life to the fullest come what may.

OK, now that you know what makes me tick, if you don't want to read on I am perfectly fine with that.  If you can live with reading what a Jesus freak who has a calling to help others prepare for a crisis that may face them at any time, then read on.   I hope that I can offer practical advice for you to evaluate and then see if it can help you solve a problem you may have.

I have tried to make the categories relevant and simple to follow.  I will try to keep postings organized and easy to use for your benefit.  If you have any suggestions or have a question that may benefit the larger community, please contact me and I will begin to research it.  I may not respond to each individual email but I will attempt to, if only briefly.  Please be patient if you do write, I run 4 different businesses and have a wife and 3 children so time can slip away from me sometimes.

I want to thank you for reading this far, it is further than most people get.  Please use my blog spot as a resource not only for yourself, but also for your family and friends.

May God bless you and keep you.  May He grant you wisdom and peace in all your endeavors.

Talk to you soon.

Dennis