Sarah’s View, by my wife Sarah Adams

I have lived in the Puget Sound region for most of my life and truly love it here. That’s not to say I haven’t had my adventures. I went to college in Southern Indiana where I studied Archaeology and Anthropology. I eventually chose to focus on Forensic Anthropology with the goal of working for the FBI. Graduate school took a back seat, however, when I decided to move to Los Angeles and attempt to break in to the acting “biz”. While I wasn’t particularly successful in that world I did manage to join the Screen Actors Guild and can therefore say I’m a “union actor”.

Besides school and my sojourn into acting, I’ve traveled as much as time and money has allowed, visiting 15 countries (so far). My favorite destinations include Italy (Venice in particular), Belize, and Australia. Being able to say I’ve traversed the Panama Canal is pretty cool too.

With this background, it’s no surprise I work at a bank…oh wait! Luckily I have a great boss and really love the career I’ve fallen into. With my marriage to Trace, life changed considerably. I moved in with him and took on the role of stepmom to his four kids.

We’ve got a good life and prepping is our way of protecting it, whatever comes along.

Sarah’s View posts
The First Steps to Debt-Free
What Happens With Your Body When You Die?
Product Review: iTorch External Battery
Goats
1st Time Using a Pressure Canner
What Are You Waiting For?
Knitting
Learning To Save Seeds
Rules vs Principles
Happy 4th of July
Raising Children In A Collapse World
Gardening Journal
The Disaster I See
DIY Potato Box
A Prepper’s Budget
Traveling For Work
Time To Order Seeds
“What Do You Think Of All This?”

Momma Bear, by Leah

I am the mother of three (two teens and an adult), keeper of seven pets, a Marine Corps wife, Navy veteran, go-to family logisticator, international traveler, foodie, amateur artist, Germanophile, heavy-duty crafter, consummate volunteer, handy girl and part-time intellectual (if only there were more hours in my day). Currently we reside outside our nation’s capitol, in northern Virginia; after returning from six years of living abroad. With 22 years military service (his/mine combined), we have moved over 20 times; including multiple coast to coast and two international moves. We are city raised with little rural life experience.

Having lived and traveled all over the world, I have been a lot closer to terrorism, epidemics, natural disasters and civil unrest than I ever would have imagined. Living and traveling in Europe brought a constant threat of terrorism, while in Asia it brought us perilously close to the H1N1 virus. In 2010, a week after vacationing in Bangkok, Thailand fell into civil unrest with riots and fire bombings burning many of the places we had just visited. In 2011 an earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear reactor leak devastated Japan, while we were living there. My husband was one of the many who assisted in Sendai, Japan. While these are all valuable life lessons, especially for our children, some have been a little too close for comfort. I have developed a greater appreciation for the tenuousness of our place on this earth. It is only natural that since our recent return to the U.S., I am the tip of the spear in preparing for any eventualities at home.

Momma Bear posts
Government Shutdown
Book Review: Wool
Bugs For Dinner
Carefully Choosing Seeds This Year
Sequestration, Military Life, & Our Growing Family
Year One in Review
Thoughts On The Flu
Back-Up Cooking Systems & a Review of the Jetboil Stove
Long Term Food Storage Specifics
October Preps
Figuring Out How To Make Food Storage Work
September Preps
MREs For Your Preps?
August Preps
Our Favorite Military Things
July Preps
Women’s Maladies
June Preps
Birth Control
May Preps
Home-Made, Reusable Sanitary Napkins
April Preps
Getting Out of Dodge B.Y.O.B.O.B. – Bring Your Own Bug Out Bag, How Our Family Did It
March Preps
An Inexpensive Water Filter System
Momma Bear Is The Prepper 

Also follow Leah on her own blog: The Harried Hausfrau

Nuts & Bolts by Nick, by Nick Romaniello

A native and resident of Pittsburgh Pennsylvania, I have also lived in Charleston South Carolina. Most of my professional life has been centered around the building trades with a stint at the local organic food co-op. I now operate my own sustainability focused home improvement business Mighty Oak Homecraft. I share my small urban home with my wife, my rambunctious 3 year old son and two mentally questionable Boston Terriers.

By motorcycle, campervan, or plane, travel is my passion and I have collected several push-pins in my wall map including destinations in North America, Europe and North Africa with no end in sight. I strongly believe that experiencing other people and cultures can not only foster understanding, but can allow us to grow as individuals when we learn how others survive and thrive especially in areas less stable than our own.

I come to the world of prepping not through paranoia or doom-mongering, but rather as a common sense approach to long term safety and sustainability. I have often said “Having a fire extinguisher does not mean that I am wishing for a fire to use it on.”. From living my life between a hurricane strike zone and a blizzard prone urban hillside I have often seen the likelihood for preparations to be put to use well before we get to the point of total collapse. My stalwart adaptability and my willingness to eat anything and sleep anywhere was enough for me to feel secure as a lone wolf. However, now that I have a family, I have come to recognize the importance of being ready for the unexpected and have committed to efforts of preparing myself to deal with everything from skinned knees and blackouts to fending off the zombie hordes.

 

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Rural Relations with Josh, by Josh

I was born in southern Idaho but moved to Eastern Washington at a young age. I grew up north of Spokane with a lot of outdoor experience in Boy Scouts and great family who took me camping, fishing, hiking, and hunting. I joined the Navy at 19 and spent 4 years on a fast attack submarine out of Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, spending time at various ports around the Pacific Ocean. After the Navy, I finished a degree in Computer Information Systems and married, moving to Western Washington to pursue a career with my wife and small family.

Once we moved to the Seattle area, we quickly realized that we needed to be somewhere more rural and away from all the people.  The job prospects were so great that we had a hard time going and decided to commute instead — which is a pretty hard thing to do. After working for a company who specialized in real estate marketing, we found a nice rambler on five acres 30 miles out of Seattle that made it bearable to be in such a dense population area. Although things have changed, and I can now work remotely 95% of the time, we enjoy the place we’re at but look to move somewhere in Idaho or Montana eventually.

I hope to be able to share with folks some of the lessons that we’ve learned throughout our journey as we’ve become aware of how important it is to be self sufficient and be able to provide for oneself and ones family.

Rural Relations with Josh posts
Lessons  Learned, Part III – Is Rural Living Right For You?
Lessons Learned, Part II – You Can’t Chose Your Neighbors
Lessons Learned, An Introduction

Sierra Kate

Kate currently lives in small-city Canada and has just come across the world of prepping. What initially grabbed her interest in prepping is how well it fits in with her own intellectual inclinations and desires for a healthy lifestyle that has sustainability, self-reliability, utility and minimalism in mind. She enjoys solitude and her hobbies include reading and biking.

Sierra Kate posts
Reusables, Self-Reliance & Feminine Hygiene, Part 2 – How Do They Perform?
Reusables, Self-Reliance & Feminine Hygiene, Part 1 – Options

The City Cousin, by Shawn

I come by prepping as part of my heritage. My father was always prepared for whatever situation came up. He was a wise and big picture man. He always filled up his vehicles on Friday each week in case something came up over the weekend and never let a gas tank drop below ¼ full. After Dad retired from the military and they settled down, he had food storage and water storage that would have carried them through at least six months. They had a wood burning stove in their home which was never used but there in case it was needed. And when he passed away, he had prepaid all his funeral expenses and after all was done we even got a refund. That was my dad.

Living and working in Seattle, I have opted at this time to live just off downtown in a 500 square foot one bedroom apartment. For a single person, this is a comfortable space, and also trying to be “green”, it reduced my use of resources from electricity to gas for my truck. I moved into the building after an earthquake in an apartment building that looked like all those that collapsed in the 1994 Northridge earthquake in California. A small earthquake in that apartment made me look for a better building. My current apartment building is wood frame construction and survived our last big earthquake here in Seattle in 2001 with no damage. We have to be big picture as well as practical when we make every day decision based on being prepared. With limited space, I have reviewed what I can reasonably be prepared for. I will review for you Who, What, When, Where, and How I’ve personally prepared to live in this urban environment.

The City Cousin posts
My Plan
Making A Plan
A Different Perspective On Prepping

Rick Brodersen

Rick is an HVAC/R Mechanic and has worked in the Seattle area for over 15 years, specializing in the commercial service industry. He has instructed at local trade schools and now continues teaching at his blog RicksDIY.com. He is also an avid prepper, hiker, and fisherman who, along with his family, enjoys taking in all the Pacific Northwest has to offer.

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