I’m not a SuperPrepperSurvivalistNinja™.
Image by Marcus J. Ranum, mjranum-stock used with permission
I’m kinda old, I’m carrying around far too many pounds (I’m working on that), and I’m not an aggressive go-getter killing machine.
You probably aren’t either… at least, I HOPE you aren’t.
SuperPrepperSurvivalistNinja™
I’ve decided to revisit this topic and update it, the SuperPrepperSurvivalistNinja™ idea dates back to the beginning days of our website. Frankly, we had very few readers when it was first published, so an update and refresh was in order.
What you see when you look at Spice and myself are two people who have made some choices to live a non-conventional lifestyle… one that involves working towards self sufficiency and lowering our overall footprint on the planet (don’t worry, we aren’t tree huggers, relax… well, OK, Spice hugs trees now and again, but that’s more because that’s how she climbs them).
Along the way, we’ve added other contributors; Paranoid Prepper and Merman, to name two… and neither one of them is a SuperPrepperSurvivalistNinja™ either. Together, all of the staff members have the same outlook, be who we are.
But then… there are people who think they are SuperPrepperSurvivalistNinja™ material
All too often people (generally men, gotta be honest about what we like fellas) concentrate on the martial aspects of prepping and survivalism… we LIKE the guns, we LIKE the knives, we LIKE putting on the vests and web gear and pouches… we LIKE going to the range, it comforts us thinking that we will be ready to protect our families.
I’m not opposed to any of that… heck, I DO all of that… but here’s the harsh truth… we are most likely to need to live through extended power outages due to natural disasters or deal with a pandemic than we are to deal with MadMax bands of roaming cannibal looters.
In truth, things like having plenty of potable water on hand and storage food that people will eat that’s easy to prepare is far more important than any Ninja training they might be doing.
Missing the point?
I’ve read literally hundreds of “survival” novels, and I think almost all of them miss the point… with a few exceptions, our biggest prepping needs should be centered around what is most likely to kill us, and that’s either a natural disaster or a pandemic situation.
The good news is, those are the kind of things we can “stealth prep” for if our spouses are not on board with us.
“Stealth prepping” is the art of prepping in a way that you 1) are enhancing your preparedness by acquiring self sufficiency skills, tools and goods while 2) not making a point of it with the reluctant spouse. Don’t lie, NEVER lie about it, but have “alternate and accurate” reasons for doing what you are doing that don’t annoy a spouse that is not 100-percent on board…
Such a prep could be some water storage, taking up “camping with the kids”, that kind of thing. Learn to cook full meals outdoors, where you do all the work so that meal-prep time is on you instead of the spouse… anything that you do that’s a prep that will reduce your spouse’s domestic workload or increase his/her home comfort will be appreciated by them if you don’t make it a point that “yeah, we needed an outdoor backup food prep system”.
All aboard? Probably not, but…
We also understand the way of things… there are very, very few situations where spouses are “100 percent on board” with each other when it comes to things like prepping. They say opposites attract, and there is a lot of truth to that. Having said that, people with opposite views getting together may also be why the divorce rate is so high.
We get that most people will not be able to “just go out and buy 30 or 40 acres and build a retreat”. Heck WE couldn’t afford to do it for many years.
Most people’s spouses want what they want, whether that be a fancy house, several nice cars, a boat, a swimming pool, whatever. A lot of you peeps are “stealth prepping”… so we decided to build a section of the website just for you guys and gals… how to “stealth prep“.
Honesty is everything, so what we are going to be doing with our “stealth prepping” section requires no lies, white or otherwise… what we are going to be emphasizing is things that you can do to prep that are either seen as “relationship neutral” or “relationship positive” with a spouse who is not 100 percent on board.
Our set of 100-Level prepper articles are designed to help people along that path, and we hope you find them useful.
SuperPrepperSurvivalistNinja™ qualifications not required.