Southern Bread

Here are some recent must-listens from Jack Spirko’s Survival Podcast show. My wife and I have been getting more into a preparedness mindset since the first of the year and it’s changed our outlook on a lot of things. Jack calls it “modern survivalism” but the principles he talks about every week are really just taking people back to their roots, before modern culture came and plasticized our lives. If you’re 50+ years old, do you remember when part of life was getting out and doing some vegetable gardening? Today all we plant is flowers. Do you remember when your parents bought their first new car? It was probably at age 40 or 50 as opposed to age 25 these days. Do you remember life before the television took the place of the dinner table?

Life today is not “better” than life was in 1945. It’s worse. Kids grow up in a plastic world where food magically appears on the dinner table every night. They have no connection to the production of what they consume. Paying somebody to put new brakes on your car is not “better” than “having” to do it yourself. Sure it’s messy and takes a couple of hours. But, when you’re done you have a pride in your work and a fatter wallet because of it. And your son has a new skill that he’ll go through life with. The same applies to food. Sending your kids outside to pick and string a bushel of pole beans and then throwing them right in a skillet for dinner 30 minutes later is teaching them a life lesson that a buying a can of Green Giant just can’t.

Instead of buying apples, vinegar and cider every time you go to the grocery store, how about buying some apple trees and planting them in your back yard. Within a couple of years you’ll be producing plenty of apples to eat. Then you can take a few bushels, chop them up and make your own cider to drink and to store. Then take all of the left over apple mash from making the cider and use it to make your own vinegar with a large bucket and some hay. None of that is hard and it all teaches wonderful life skills. Plus, after a few years of changing your thinking on this kind of thing you slowly wean yourself off of “the system.” You no longer have to run out on Christmas Eve and pick up a jug of cider for when the relatives come over. You just go down in the basement and grab some you made and stored.

I could go on and on, but I’d rather let Jack explain it to you. I’ve picked out three really, really good episodes that I think would be very much worth your while to listen to. These are good introductions to being preparedness minded:

TSP – Principle One of Modern Survival:

TSP – The Last Pure Form of Revolution:

TSP – 20 Simple Steps to Independence:

While you’re at it, subscribe to Jack’s RSS feed and follow his show. You’ll be glad you did.