I thought that today I would return to the blog and explain why I haven't posted.
Just a week after I started BP, my mother was diagnosed with stage four colo-rectal & liver cancer. It came from nowhere. No symptoms. No signs. No warnings. She just had some back and side pain that wasn't letting up, and figured it was muscle strain. Well...it wasn't.
After taking over a month to figure out meds, costs, and work things out with insurance & Medicare, she started chemotherapy. She chose at-home, so that meant one 5 hour IV infusion, then 21 days at home in pill form. She got a little sick from it, but nothing horrible. She made it through the first round OK. However, the day after she started the second round, she was horribly ill. Unable to keep food down, constantly nauseous, and exhausted. She decided the day after, that she was done. She didn't want to continue treatment if this is how it was going to be. I support her decision 100%. I don't want to lose my mom, but at this stage there is no cure; there is no getting better, and there is no quality of life in constantly being sick for what time is left. I would have made the same decision.
Today is the first day that I've been able to spend at home. I've been there 5-6 days a week and had to leave my job at the farm. My sister is there today with them, and hospice care will be coming around lunchtime to get things going for her. The Dr has also sent out a visiting nurse service to help with my dad. (He's slowly going from emphysema) I'll be back out there tomorrow to help them with whatever they need, and to clean out the spare bedroom for anyone to stay that wants to be with her.
It's a very rough time for all of us. You always seem to thing that your parents are immortal; but then reality slaps you in the face. I suppose it's harder since this has all happened in just 2 1/2 months and not over a long period of time. It's just been too damn fast.
I have no plans to abandon Budget Prepper, but it is obviously put on the back burner for now. I have 3 posts started that were just waiting for finishing touches and pictures, and those will go up when there is time.
I've learned quite a few things through this
mess, and this is the biggest one. Tell your wife, husband,
girl/boyfriend, partner, whatever, how much you love them and what they
mean to you; because tomorrow you may not be able to. Tomorrow this
could be you fighting for your life or realizing that your time is very
limited. There may not be a tomorrow.
Chris
Wednesday, December 12, 2012
Thursday, October 11, 2012
I suppose I should start by explaining what I mean when I say "prep". With prepping coming to more light due to a few new TV shows, people are becoming more aware that others are doing this. Keep in mind that I do not have TV, so I have only seen a few episodes of this show; but I can't help but feel that this show seems to showcase the ones that are on the far fringe of survival and emergency preparedness. I'm not saying they're bad people; or what believe that these shows make the rest of us look like nut cases.
I don't have a bunker. I don't have gas masks or run practice nuclear attack drills. I won't be writing posts involving conspiracy theories. I don't think about foreign attack or lose sleep worrying about a zombie apocalypse. (though it is fun to talk about!), While none of these things are truly impossible, they aren't the reasons behind what I do.
When I think of prepping, I think of common things that nearly all of us have experienced. Layoff/job loss, death of a family member, sickness, natural disaster, power outage, and others. Think about just the ones that I mentioned. With a job loss, you may not have the money or means to buy groceries for yourself or your family. With sickness, you can experience the same things if you aren't one of the lucky few with sick leave from work. A natural disaster or power outage can leave you with not only no electricity at home, but also possibly no way to get to the store; assuming that they are able to operate and/or have anything left on the shelf. Prepping doesn't have to be about doom and gloom. Remember that.
I take the same view on vegetable gardening and homesteading. I build nearly everything that I use rather than buy it or have someone else build it. Other than a rototiller, all of my gardening tools are simple. I don't have a greenhouse with electric heat and window openers, and I don't spend countless hours testing my soil. You can go back to my old post at One Acre Homestead to read more about my simple approach.
The biggest thing that I plan on doing with this blog is showing how to do both with a level head, common sense, and on a sensible budget. Thus the name of the blog. BUDGET Prepper. Setting aside food and supplies doesn't have to break the bank. Gardening doesn't have to cost $200 to grow $90 worth of vegetables. I'm just here to show you how I do things and give advice on doing it yourself.
So........let the adventures begin. The first "real" post will be going up in the next few days.
Chris
I don't have a bunker. I don't have gas masks or run practice nuclear attack drills. I won't be writing posts involving conspiracy theories. I don't think about foreign attack or lose sleep worrying about a zombie apocalypse. (though it is fun to talk about!), While none of these things are truly impossible, they aren't the reasons behind what I do.
When I think of prepping, I think of common things that nearly all of us have experienced. Layoff/job loss, death of a family member, sickness, natural disaster, power outage, and others. Think about just the ones that I mentioned. With a job loss, you may not have the money or means to buy groceries for yourself or your family. With sickness, you can experience the same things if you aren't one of the lucky few with sick leave from work. A natural disaster or power outage can leave you with not only no electricity at home, but also possibly no way to get to the store; assuming that they are able to operate and/or have anything left on the shelf. Prepping doesn't have to be about doom and gloom. Remember that.
I take the same view on vegetable gardening and homesteading. I build nearly everything that I use rather than buy it or have someone else build it. Other than a rototiller, all of my gardening tools are simple. I don't have a greenhouse with electric heat and window openers, and I don't spend countless hours testing my soil. You can go back to my old post at One Acre Homestead to read more about my simple approach.
The biggest thing that I plan on doing with this blog is showing how to do both with a level head, common sense, and on a sensible budget. Thus the name of the blog. BUDGET Prepper. Setting aside food and supplies doesn't have to break the bank. Gardening doesn't have to cost $200 to grow $90 worth of vegetables. I'm just here to show you how I do things and give advice on doing it yourself.
So........let the adventures begin. The first "real" post will be going up in the next few days.
Chris
Tuesday, October 9, 2012
Welcome!
Hi, and welcome to the first post here at Budget Prepper. This first post will be an introduction, and a general outline of what I intend this blog to be. I'm by no means a professional writer, so I won't bother trying to write like one. What you read is who I am. No more-no less.
I'm Chris, a 47 year old from northeast Ohio. I'm a pretty simple guy. I've worked in retail, the firearms business, construction, and on a produce farm. My interests range from hunting and fishing, to emergency preparedness and homesteading. I wrote another blog for 4 years,(http://1acreohiohomestead.blogspot.com/), and enjoyed it very much. But as my interests began to broaden, I found myself in a dilemma. I wanted to add more emergency preparedness writing yet keep the homesteading aspect that I started with. The blog was beginning to seem just like I was elsewhere across the internet on some forums that I frequent-I was too "homestead" for the survival folks, and I was too "survival" for the homestead people. I was talking about making things when others were paying high prices for the same thing bought from a website or store. I was getting my emergency supplies from thrift stores and yard sales while many were going to the big box retailers and web stores that sell pallets of freeze dried foods.
I thought that my simple, low cost, common sense approach would catch on with both sides, but instead I found my regular readers and comments dimishing. Once again, I felt like a bit of an outcast in my own tiny piece of cyberspace. Between feeling lost in that, and other issues in my home life, I quit writing in One Acre Homestead completely. I made a few posts promising to return and write, but my heart just wasn't in it.
So here I am; starting a new blog with new intentions. I plan to keep writing on my homesteading adventures here on one acre, but also to give; by my own example; advice on how to prep (and homestead) without breaking the bank and keeping a level head. I don't know where this road will go, but feel free to tag along for the ride!
Chris
I'm Chris, a 47 year old from northeast Ohio. I'm a pretty simple guy. I've worked in retail, the firearms business, construction, and on a produce farm. My interests range from hunting and fishing, to emergency preparedness and homesteading. I wrote another blog for 4 years,(http://1acreohiohomestead.blogspot.com/), and enjoyed it very much. But as my interests began to broaden, I found myself in a dilemma. I wanted to add more emergency preparedness writing yet keep the homesteading aspect that I started with. The blog was beginning to seem just like I was elsewhere across the internet on some forums that I frequent-I was too "homestead" for the survival folks, and I was too "survival" for the homestead people. I was talking about making things when others were paying high prices for the same thing bought from a website or store. I was getting my emergency supplies from thrift stores and yard sales while many were going to the big box retailers and web stores that sell pallets of freeze dried foods.
I thought that my simple, low cost, common sense approach would catch on with both sides, but instead I found my regular readers and comments dimishing. Once again, I felt like a bit of an outcast in my own tiny piece of cyberspace. Between feeling lost in that, and other issues in my home life, I quit writing in One Acre Homestead completely. I made a few posts promising to return and write, but my heart just wasn't in it.
So here I am; starting a new blog with new intentions. I plan to keep writing on my homesteading adventures here on one acre, but also to give; by my own example; advice on how to prep (and homestead) without breaking the bank and keeping a level head. I don't know where this road will go, but feel free to tag along for the ride!
Chris
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