This was one of those weeks I didn’t get as much done prepping wise. I was sick for a few days, with that upper respiratory crap that was going around, and consequently didn’t sleep well, which lowered my energy and motivation levels. Also, I had to drive an hour and a half each way, to pick up a replacement transmission for our Hyundai–on my day off–which took a big chunk out of my available time (and more money than we’d like). Excuses, excuses, we all have them – but hopefully we all also realize prepping isn’t our whole lives, just an important part of them.

I bought three new pairs of Carhartt jeans this week. Which made me think: we store all this stuff, “just in case”, but how much extra do we have of day-to-day type clothes (especially work clothes)? Most of us have our primary clothes that we wear regularly, but what about backups? Jeans? Work boots? Boots that will keep your feet warm and dry? Socks? Coats? Gloves (both work and warmth)? Stocking caps? Even things like sunglasses? Look around at the items you wear on a regular/semi-regular basis–that you would like to continue wearing if the SHTF*–and consider getting extras. Also think about possibly storing some in another location, in case of a home fire or another situation where you have to rapidly bug-out. I hadn’t thought about it much before, it just all kind of hit me when I was buying the jeans.

I got together with my prepper friend, Rick, this week for a cup of coffee. Rick and I met though TSP forum community. While the internet allows us to make contacts and develop ‘friendships’ with people all over the world, there’s nothing quite like meeting with another like-minded person, shaking their hand, and talking face-to-face. As I’ve mentioned before, I live in Puyallup, WA (east of Tacoma) and work in Seattle. So open invitation**: If anyone lives nearby, or visits, let’s get together and have a cup of coffee or a beer (or beverage of your choice) and take that additional step to develop our prepper community locally. If things ever do go bad, no one can do it alone; friendships, family (real or adopted), especially ones that have taken steps to be prepared, will make the difference whether we survive or not.

What did you do?

(Monday: Teaching The Kids (& Learning More Myself))

**For my list of abbreviations and other information, open the above ‘Check Here…’ page tab.

**My contact information can be found on the About Trace page