Guest post: I Never Thought It Would Come To This

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I never thought that it would come to this.

I often catch myself thinking about how great it was growing up as a kid. Playing GI Joe in the front yard with the other kids in the neighborhood, loading up in the car and taking off for a weekend getaway, or just having the feeling that everything was OK. Things don’t quite feel that way anymore.

My name is West McBride. I am 35, married and have two children. Currently I am in a stable job as a firefighter, and very thankful for that. I am an Eagle Scout, love the outdoors, hunting, camping, fishing and photography.

Being an Eagle Scout was a long process and hard work. Scouts taught me a lot about life and helped me grow up into, what I believe to be, a hard worker. There was a merit badge that I received called wilderness survival. At that time I thought the only place that you would need to survive would be the wilderness. Little did I know the big world out there would throw curve balls left and right at me.

I never really followed the news much through my teen years or college years. I kept an eye on large conflicts and things that interest me. Following the news now is an everyday necessity. As I watch the cost of fuel, foods, and household goods increase, I think what should I do or be doing to ensure my family will have what it needs when the so called SHTF takes place.

So I pulled out my laptop and started researching. Little did I know, I was not alone. Overwhelmed by the number of sites and resources out there I started bookmarking sites into my favorites. Man has that folder grown. All leading to the same purpose or goal I have chosen to start my journey in to Modern Day Survival.

Having been married now for ten years and have two children, I feel my purpose is to provide and protect my family. In order to do this I feel there are some essential elements needed.

Job – provides me with the funds so that we can survive our day to day lives.
Shelter – there is no place like home.
Food – must have to survive.
Water – again must have to survive.
Security – speaks for itself.

These are the things I feel I must provide for my family. I’m sure I have left some out, but again, I am new to this.

One of the biggest tasks that I have been faced with is getting my wife on board with this whole idea of modern day survival. As we sit down and talk about the current state of the economy, our finances, and future it somewhat becomes clearer to her that this is a path we need to take.

We have decided that our current residence is where we will take our stand. Not blessed with money or land, it will have to work. I have decided to use the garage and a closet under a stairwell as my storage locations.

My journey began at home. It started with looking through drawers in the kitchen, in the bathrooms, shelves in the garage and closets. I asked myself what do I have in these places that I don’t use, but could in a time of need? If anything, I could pull all the misc. items together and have them in one spot for use when needed. It was like a scavenger hunt.

I find myself when eating out taking any left over condiments on the table. Salt and pepper packets, ketchup, sugar and sweeteners. Sometimes I catch myself looking around to make sure know one is watching. I understand that this is going to take time and a lot of effort, but how much time do we have? I am slowly starting to get some extra things put away. It all seems somewhat overwhelming where do I start, what is most important to get first, however, I have found several websites to help with this, including this one. I am not sure when things are going to change, but do know that they will and I am doing everything I can to get prepared.

Are you?

Author: West McBride
http://www.hpfirefighter.com/

[From Rourke: Thanks West.]

Tags: life, survival information

Current Events, life philosophy | Rourke February 14, 2011

8 Comments to “Guest post: I Never Thought It Would Come To This”

By Randy Wallace, February 14, 2011 @ 7:22 am

#1. Faith in God.
For me the other 5 on the list are temporary fixes without that.
By sdawgarmy, February 14, 2011 @ 10:24 am

Well said. I had trouble myself convincing the wifey to get on board but I think the grocery store did more convincing then myself. You ar definetly not alone in your beleifs n thinking West. I hope we all continue to reach out to others of our philosohy and by doing so may prevent any shtf and may even change things for the better. I personally got my mom n dad to read One second after. They r now on board just not hoefully too late. Keep preppin!
By BigSteve, February 14, 2011 @ 10:29 am

Nice guest post. I have become like many that have enjoyed this site, prepare now, or join the rest waiting for someone else to help (which might never happen, or worse). LMAO I too have “stocked” up while eating out…my wife thinks I’m nuts. I just hope I never have to say “I told y’all”. Stock the shelves high and deep!
By GoneWithTheWind, February 14, 2011 @ 10:58 am

Important to note that the unsaid part of this is that most people in the U.S. today feel that something is happening. We don’t all know what is happening or agree on what we think is happening but so many of us indeed believe TS is about THTF. There were survivalist 20 years ago and preppers/food hoarders as well. But today it is becoming epidemic and even accepted. I sincerely hope we are all proved wrong and life goes on with it’s little ups and downs but my gut tells me different.
By carl, February 14, 2011 @ 11:16 am

Great note West. Just a comment that preparedness is a frame of mind more than anything else. Being an Life Scout myself( being a scout in the early 60′s was extremely un-cool) I wish I had gotten those last couple of merit badges now..
By Patriot One, February 14, 2011 @ 3:10 pm

Great post West. You won’t have to be Rambo to survive the New America. Being an Eagle Scout puts you way ahead of 98% of the population. Because no one knows how much time we will have, stick to the basics, food, water, weapons, ammo and shelter. I know you said you were going to shelter in place, but I would urge you to have plan B, C, D and E. What ever could go wrong will likely happen.

If you have a lot of family and friends near you try to build a Tribe of 12 to 16 people. If those close to you think you have a Tin Foil Hat on, move on. I’ve found its pointless to try to change their minds. Like you I never thought it would come to this. To be quite honest, if you tried to talk to me about survival 4 years ago, I would have thought you were nuts too.

In my opinion Food and Fuel prices will tell us when the SHTF.
By sdawgarmy, February 14, 2011 @ 5:37 pm

Hey everyone just had a thought here while watching news n glenn beck. I decided to just search muslim brotherhood on facebook. Sure enough their pages popped up. I was angry. I know facebook is a global company but mr social network should not support hate n terrorists. So I used their little report feature off in corner n reported the site as dangerous as a known threat. Please do the same I doubt they will make a change but I would love to try n get them removed. Send a message! Be interesting to see what happens. If I was more tech savy I would love to make a patriot pro usa page. Let’s take back OUR country. Sorry im off the soapbox but tell me what y’all think n believe.
By pamela, February 15, 2011 @ 4:33 am

Great article. Here it’s the same situation except change things around, it’s the wife trying to get the husband on-board with prepping. That puts us somewhat at an advantage as I’m the one responsible for most of the food in that I do all the gardening and food preservation anyway. I think if my husband came home talking about what we needed to do to prep, well, I’d probably faint! LOL