Happy New Year and ......... an Introduction

Allow me to introduce myself; I am a new contributor to the Minnesota Peppers Blog.I go by “Loki” and if we connect on a personal level I will be more than happy to give my Christian name. A little about myself; I have been actively prepping for 5 years now, mostly do to realizing that no one is going to ensure the protection of my family better than I. I believe in the premise of “Beans, Bullets & Band Aids” as a necessary start to your prepping plans. Please don’t get me wrong, it is only a phrase, and NOT the sum of my inventory. During the course of time that I contribute here, I will bring to the page as much reliable information, ideas, direction as I can (mixed in with a healthy dose of sarcasm, a smattering of humor, and the occasional blood pressure lowering rant). I love feedback, never shy from dissenting opinion, and welcome questions or requests for help. I will never be one of those “holier then thou” writers who believes their keyboard spews the gospel of preparedness. I’ll never tell you what you MUST have or do. I’ll never claim “my way or the highway”. What I will do is pass on as many frugal, smart, or best suggested ways to bring about the one thing we all are striving for, independence and security for ourselves and our families.

For those of you that have ventured over through a web search, word of mouth, or via the recent Newsweek article, please do not miss the treasure trove of information on the APN forums. I may from time to time direct you to something there, and you can always find me posting there. For all of you who are new to this idea of prepping please check out my post on where to start. Do not let the massive amount of information at your fingertips and the know-it-alls who tell you what to do if you want to survive (and if you don’t follow their paradigm, you will die). Keep an open mind, but a sound conviction to you morals and principles. The two most important rules to prepping are; be calm, yet diligent and be organized.

The old saying goes, “Those who keep their heads, when all about them are losing theirs, are the ones to survive”. This is never truer than for the preparedness mindset. Organization will make keeping calm “easy breezy”. Organization will make known where everything you prep is where it is to be when you need it. Organization will have your plans laid out along with back-ups for your back-up plans. Organization will allow for simpler budget making. Organization will make the whole process smooth. With organization on your side, you’ll be able to remain calm knowing you have what you have, the definition your needs, and leave room to pick up on some of the wants. Keeping calm will help your family even more than the plans you make by allowing them to see that you are, not in control of the situation, but confident enough to deal with it and help get you all through it. Well know panic leads to panic. The same holds true for confidence and preparedness.

So again, I want to thank Shy Wolf and the rest of the APN family for allowing me to be apart of this organization and group of like-minded thinkers. Feel free to contact me with questions or suggestion. I wish all of you a safe and productive New Year and may all of your plans come to fruition as easily as they came to mind.

D_Loki