The Organic Prepper

For many years, I've followed The Organic Prepper's website. Daisy Luther has been a rock of excellent information in the preparedness world for a long time. I've quoted her material endless times over the life of this blog.

But she's hit a rough patch, up to and including a medical situation that has left her permanently disabled and in great pain. It's been hard watching her condition deteriorate. Despite it all, however, she continues her active writing schedule, providing superbly researched information for her readers.

Today I (as a subscriber) received the following email:

We are days away from closing The Organic Prepper website.

I honestly can't believe I'm writing this letter to you all. As promised earlier, I wanted to send you a longer message to explain our situation.

This website began tiny, back in 2012. I had about 30 views per article and that was on a good day. I got lucky – people liked the content on The OP and we grew, and grew, and grew. We became a voice to be reckoned with, bringing you both sides of the story and being staunchly libertarian in our views. We had so much influence that it scared the establishment, and starting in 2020, we began suffering hit after hit.

First, we were defunded without any warning from our former ad network, AdThrive. We'd been working with them for years and never had a single complaint. Then they hired a "disinformation" group to audit our website and poof - the money we depended on was gone. (At this point, it cost $55,000 a year to run the websites, and that was without one thin dime coming to me or my family.) With ad network support, we could do it. Without, it's been a constant scramble since 2021 when we received our last payment.

Soon after "NewsGuard" decided to audit us. They ranked us rock-bottom for reliability and honesty, after trying to get us to change our narrative to match the official one. When we insisted on providing both sides of the story, we were called a disinformation outlet. Interestingly, all the things we disagreed on regarding the origins of Covid-19, the mRNA vaccines, and Dr. Anthony Fauci have been proven to be true. That doesn't matter, though – they still have us ranked as big fat liars. Other ad networks see this ranking and won't do business with us.

We've been almost completely reader-supported ever since. But times are tough, for you guys as well as me. That support has dwindled away, too. My health doesn't allow me to have the same level of "hustle" that I used to have, creating brand new products or courses every two weeks.

It truly pains me and embarrasses me to tell you that within the week, we may have to close the website. I'm holding this fundraiser as a last-ditch effort to keep paying for our server and other expenses (which I've cut back to the bare minimum).

As a fundraiser, I'm offering a really awesome anthology bundle, with four complete PDF books from The Organic Prepper, starting as low as $5. Every single penny helps us more than I can express. We're getting closer to our goal but we can't get there without help. You can set your own price for this product.

LINK: https://selfrelianceandsurvival.com/product/4-complete-organic-prepper-anthologies/

If you want to provide ongoing support, please check out my Patreon, which offers ad-free content from The OP.

LINK: https://www.patreon.com/theorganicprepper

Asking for help is really difficult for me. I've always managed to save myself. This time, I can't do it without a hand up.

I sincerely appreciate any purchase you are able to make. I hope desperately to keep The OP going.

Stay safe.
Be happy.

Love,
Daisy

I'm reposting her request here in case anyone else would like to help support her. Her material is excellent and the bundles she offers are well worth it. Please consider making some purchases to help her out.

Thank you.

Revolutionary behavior

We're experiencing hot weather here – no surprise, it's July – but in the mornings when it's cool, Don is hard at work building more garden beds.

Currently we have ten beds in place and ready to plant, though they'll stay dormant until later this summer or early fall when I'll transplant some of the strawberries I'm potting from runners, as well as plant garlic. By next spring, however, we'll be able to start growing a whole lot more. Little by little, we're moving toward self-sufficiency here in our new (to us) home.

But rather than talk about the garden or planting garlic or potting strawberries at the moment, let's take a look at a wider issue: the desire for independence. Ultimately that's why we like having a self-sufficient farm, because we like the feeling of providing for our needs with our own labor.

And this segues into a piece written by Daisy Luther on The Organic Prepper from July 4: "Independence Is Still a Revolutionary Act."

She talks about the need to become producers, not consumers. She discusses what happens when we depend on others for our food, water, utilities, education, medical care, and other necessities.

This can only be taken so far – I doubt we'll ever be "independent" when it comes to something like brain surgery – but we've tried (or are trying) to embrace many of our necessities and bring them under our control.

More importantly, we see the handwriting on the wall when it comes to a loss of true Rights (derived from God) and an enormously unconstitutional government doing everything in its power to eradicate the limitations outlined in the Constitution and trample the Bill of Rights.

"Somehow, this land of rugged individuals has become largely populated with scared children who expect to be cared for, fed, protected, and made to feel good about themselves, all by government mandate," Daisy writes. "Many people seem to have no desire whatsoever to earn their keep, provide for their families, or take responsibility for their own safety. They expect the workplace to be one of sunshine and lollipops, with ample time off, equal pay for all, and., don’t forget, yoga with baby goats and lots of kind words for everyone. Our culture is just so incredibly dependent. And to some extent, we, the rugged independents who are left, have let this happen because the dependents are louder than us."

It's not just that dependent people are louder, it's also easier to follow the path of least resistance. Let's face it, independence is hard work. Dependency is easy.

And then Daisy wrote something very interesting:

"The most important thing is to begin to recognize the chains that are on you so that you can begin, link by link, to break them. How do you break free of the life that nearly every single person around you lives? It’s simple, yet so complicated. Here it is, the ultimate act of revolution. It is so very simple. You have to need less. When you need less, you have less to fear."

This reminds me of an anecdote from the stoic Greek philosopher Diogenes (412-323 BC) I read in "The Little, Brown book of Anecdotes": "By assiduous flattery, the hedonistic philosopher Aristippus had won himself a comfortable sinecure at the court of Dionysius, tyrant of Syracuse. One day, observing Diogenes preparing some lentils for a meager meal, Aristippus offered some worldly wisdom to his fellow sage: 'If you would only learn to compliment Dionysius, you wouldn't have to live on lentils.' Diogenes retorted, 'And if you would only learn to live on lentils, you wouldn't have to flatter Dionysius.'"

Thoreau said it more succinctly: "A man is rich in proportion to the number of things which he can afford to let alone."

So I see this whole issue of independence as a two-pronged approach: Learning to produce more, and living on less.

"Real liberty is up to you," Daisy writes. "Use it or lose it."

Apparently this is "revolutionary behavior." What do you think?

Financial strategies

This morning I read a finance piece entitled "A Nation's Heavily Indebted Consumers Face a Painful Margin Call." The article focused on the Canadian economy, and opened with the following paragraph:

"At the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, with his job as a delivery driver bringing plenty of overtime and the cost to borrow at record lows, James Kebe went on a spending spree. He leased a boat and an all-terrain vehicle, and when his bank offered him a bigger line of credit, he maxed it out.Then interest rates started rising at their fastest pace in generations. And because Kebe’s line of credit had a floating rate, his monthly payments soared, too. The cost of his debt has now outpaced his take-home pay by C$900 (U.S. $660) a month, leaving him with little choice but to enter a form of creditor protection that will see his toys repossessed and keep him on a tight budget for the foreseeable future. 'I've always been able to squeak by until now,' he said by phone from his home in West Kelowna, in the Canadian province of British Columbia. Now when he's at the store, Kebe says his new mantra is: 'Do I need this? No I don’t.'"

I confess I blanched with horror when I read about this man's actions. The phrase "spending spree" tends to do that to me. Why? Because we've been in debt and hated it.

During our child-raising productive years, Don and I were desperately trying to keep the woodcraft business afloat while raising and homeschooling the kids. Money was always tight, and our income was wildly unpredictable. The result? Our savings were practically nil, and we got in over our heads with credit card debt (purchasing necessities, not luxuries). It took us years to climb out of the financial hole we'd dug and start putting money away for our older years.

As a result of our earlier experiences – even now, so many years later – I have a near-pathological fear of owing money. We refuse to ever take on more debt: no auto loans, no credit card debt, nothing. It's cash all the way, baby.

Then a few days ago, I read an article by Daisy Luther (The Organic Prepper) on the subject of FDIC bail-ins.

The article was fine, but as always it was the comments which followed that were even more interesting as everyone chimed in about his or her financial preparedness efforts.

One man wrote: "Our fin [financial] advisor was against us taking $ out of our 401k and paying off our property. We did it anyway. Our peace of mind is off the charts right now."

However a critic replied as follows: "No one thinks they will get 'old' and retirement seems an eternity before it happens, then suddenly it does, some are glad. Then what will your income be? SS [Social Security] can’t meet all expenses. U.S. T-bills now can be bought below par, then 6 months or a year later mature, then take the interest, get more bonds bought at less than value reinvest. They are paying 5% now. Only ones living on SS retirement only are in subsidized housing. Muni bonds are tax free."

Later she added: "Most retirees I know have CD’s in a local bank or credit union they need money to live off interest, also in gov. bonds, muni’s. Nothing else can give an income. If everything goes digital, gold and other metals can only be bought and sold among other collectors. Stores will only take digital like debit cards. 401k’s best be in US treasuries 100%. cashing a 401k will be a big tax hit."

Hmm. Is this woman a spokesperson for government bonds and other traditional investment strategies?

These comments sparked a lively discussion between Don and me because it touches on our own financial reality. Because of the financial uncertainty we experienced in our younger years, we never put money in "traditional" investments. Instead, we've done our best to squirrel away as large a cushion as we could manage on a tight budget. However we did learn the art of frugality to the nth degree. Coupled with our long-term goal to reduce our expenses to the point where we could live on very little, we're far more comfortable than we've ever been.

This touches on one aspect of financial management few people ever discuss (or adopt): The radical concept of drastically lowering one's regular or monthly expenses as a preparedness strategy.

When we had the opportunity to purchase our new (to us) home when we downsized a couple years ago, we leaped at the chance to pay cash and have no mortgage. While it would have been nice to find a place with more acreage, we deliberately limited ourselves to properties we could purchase outright for cash. Now, having lived without a mortgage for two years, I fully understand the "off-the-charts peace of mind" mentioned by the man mentioned above. It's true.

But just because we don't have a mortgage doesn't mean we've eliminated frugality. Yes, we've spent the last two years spending money buying things to turn this property into a homestead – lumber and other construction materials, fencing, and of course our plumbing woes last fall – but that's spending, not monthly expenses. We've continued whittling down our monthly expenses with a "how low can you go" attitude. If the financial bleep hits the fan for us, we can exist on as little as $800/month. If we were completely strapped for cash, we could drop that to about $500/month, possibly less.

Right now Don is receiving a very modest amount of Social Security. I won't be eligible for Social Security for another couple of years. However you can bet we'll keep our living expenses within the range of our anticipated income from these sources.

What did the critic above write? "Social Security can’t meet all expenses. ... Only ones living on SS retirement only are in subsidized housing." Excuse me, but that's baloney. One of the reasons we've whittled down our expenses (including having no mortgage) is to be able to live comfortably on Social Security, or far less if need be.

So what about the strategies mentioned by the critic above? Should we invest in T-bills and other financial opportunities? In our book, no. We don't trust the government not to mismanage itself into insolvency. The repercussions of a government-orchestrated financial collapse are vast and far-reaching, and it means the death of not just Social Security, but all the fancy T-bills and other financial vehicles this woman touts. What will she do once she can't withdraw income from her investments?

In the event of a financial collapse, everyone will be in the same boat regarding economic hardship, and traditional investment strategies may no longer apply. When and if this happens, everyone will have to cope as best they can. But those who are used to living low on the hog at least won't be faced with owing money on things they can no longer afford, or feel deprived when they can't go on a "spending spree."

In other words, considering our past, I feel we're in about as solid a financial position as we can manage, despite our lack of "traditional" investments. (You might say we "invested" in frugality.)

Perhaps a question to ask is this: Are your finances in line with a preparedness lifestyle? Is your lifestyle and spending habits in line with preparedness? Are you financially prepared to lose your job or weather an economic downturn?

The whole idea of financial preparedness is being able to handle, to the best of one's ability, economic blows ranging from the personal (job loss) to the international (a worldwide economic collapse). While we can't make much of a difference on the international platform, there's a lot we can do on a personal level to prepare.

My $0.02.

More on becoming "anti-fragile"

Here's a piece I wrote for Daisy Luther (the Organic Prepper) called "How to Become Anti-Fragile." It's a follow-up to an earlier piece I wrote on the same subject.

I gotta hand it to Daisy. The very first comment posted on her site under the article was a snark, and Daisy put him in his place with firm professionalism. Woot!

Update: Squeee! This appeared on ZeroHedge!

Lots of comments!

The benefit of multiple income streams

Here's a piece I wrote for Daisy Luther at the Organic Prepper entitled "Why Everyone Should Have Multiple Streams of Income to Survive What’s Coming."

Hop on over and take a look.

Becoming anti-fragile

In an interesting American Thinker piece entitled "How to Fight the Woke – and Win," the author included a piece of advice called "Become Anti-Fragile" as follows:

In war, you must always secure your supply lines. One of the Woke's most powerful weapons is economic pressure, so take that away from them as much as possible. Grow some of your own food, start a side business, or form a self-supporting tribe (like a church group that financially supports itself in case one member gets fired by the Woke). Being anti-fragile will allow you to stand firm when you need to speak the truth.

I found this to be an interesting point. One of the reasons we're seeing widespread capitulation of the Marxist anarchists wreaking havoc across the country is fear. As Tucker Carlson put it, "Suddenly your opinions qualify as crimes. Dare to say what you think at work, and you'll be fired in the middle of a recession. Write what you think online, and you'll be silenced immediately by the big tech companies. So you keep your views to yourself. You have no choice. A lot of Americans are doing that right now: staying quiet. That’s the point of censorship: to keep people isolated and alone – to prevent a consensus from forming that challenges the people in charge. If you’re forced to shut up, they can do what they want to you and your country."

(The headlines below can be clicked to read the articles.)

In other words, it's hard to fight back when doing so could destroy everything you've worked for – your job, your business, your home, your family's security. To this end, I believe it's important for everyone to become as "anti-fragile" as possible.

(This is reminiscent of some advice by Thomas Jefferson, who believed America was incapable of true democracy unless 20 percent of its citizens were self-sufficient on small farms. This would enable them to be real dissenters, free to voice opinions and beliefs, without any obligation to food producers who might hold their survival at stake.)

In a blog post entitled "How do you Prepare for a Revolution?", Daisy Luther (the Organic Prepper) offers excellent advice on becoming less "fragile," to wit:

"You prepare for a revolution by simply continuing to prep. Specifically, consider prepping for the following:

- Supply chain disruption and shortages of food
- Supply chain disruption and shortages of material goods
- Civil unrest
- Disruption of utilities
- Disruption of services"

If you can make yourself immune to the problems associated with the above criteria, you're miles ahead of the curve. This can include living in a place where you can see the enemy coming, and defend yourself (or retreat) as needs be.

As this sobering piece on the anatomy of an internet witch hunt demonstrates, the gloves are off when anarchists have you in their cross-hairs. They won't hesitate to use the lowest, cruelest, vilest means possible to destroy you.

Here are some of the strategies we've adopted to make ourselves less "fragile":

• We have cultivated the "many irons in the fire" approach to income. Our income is not dependent on a single source that can be attacked and disrupted by threats.

• We keep our income sources as "in house" as possible. Again, this reduces the chance of disruption. (I pity the business owners in Seattle's CHAZ area. The anarchists won't let them operate.)

• We don't have smart phones or other tracking devices.

• We live an all-cash lifestyle as much as possible (less chance of hack attacks).

• We have as little debt as possible. The more debt you have, the more vulnerable you are to income loss.

• We have whittled our expenses down to the bone, which in turn makes us less vulnerable to income loss.

• We try to grow or raise most of our food. This is suspended to some extent until after we move, but we have the knowledge, skills, and tools to fully resume when we relocate.

• We're prepared to live without power in case of grid-down.

Those who think we're paranoid for living this way must not be following the news (real news, not fake news).

But don't think we're deprived by the choices we've made. On the contrary, we enjoy our outside-the-box lifestyle. It gives us a much greater peace of mind.

What are some of the steps you've taken to become less "fragile"? Share them. Let's help everyone out.

Where to get seeds when online sources are SOLD OUT

Here's a piece I wrote for The Organic Prepper entitled "Where to get seeds when online sources are SOLD OUT."

Check it out!

How to know if you're a prepper

A couple weeks ago, the Organic Prepper had a hilarious post entitled "99 Relatable Things That Only Preppers Will Understand."

It's an absolute riot. Some of my favorites:

16. You garden with a determination and time commitment normally reserved for endurance athletes training for an Ironman triathlon.

27. When the power goes out, you calmly light the candles and proceed with whatever you had been dong previously.

28. A longer-term power outage is called “practice.”

31. You can and dehydrate food with the single-minded fervor of an Amish grandmother facing a 7-year drought.

45. You don’t stock up on milk. You get an actual cow.

50. You yell at the TV every time a commercial for Doomsday Preppers comes on. Oh. Wait. You don’t have a TV. But if you did, you’d yell, because you know how positively ridiculous and unrealistic that show is.

63. Moving to a new house is no longer “moving,” but “strategic relocation.“

Feel free to add your own!

Frugal living tips

Daisy Luther over at the Organic Prepper website had a great post recently called "30 frugal-living tips: Small changes that result in big savings."

Daisy's frugality advice echoes some of the suggestions I have in my ebooks "Plugging the Leaks" and "20 ways to cut your food bill."

What other good frugality tips can people offer?

30 Signs You're One of those Crazy Preppers

In contrast to the rather sobering list of Inconvenient Truths About TEOTWAWKI, I thought you'd all enjoy this humorous list from The Organic Prepper entitled 30 Signs That You’re One of Those “Crazy Preppers.”

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Here are the top 30 signs, should you ever be the subject of a nationwide manhunt, that you too will be considered a "Crazy Prepper on the Loose":

1. Pantries are so mainstream... you have food stashed in strange places in every room of the house.
2. You have enough toilet paper to get through a year of uncomfortable digestive upsets... occurring with 6 people simultaneously
3. Speaking of which, you possess at least 3 different ways to use the bathroom, only one of which is an actual bathroom.
4. Your kids know what OPSEC means…at the age of 4.
5. You have topographical maps of your area... plural.
6. When you’re forced to interact with “the others” you feel like you are awkwardly censoring your true opinions
7. You think nothing of treating an injury or illness yourself because “what if there was no doctor?”
8. Paintball is no longer just a fun way to spend an afternoon –- it’s called "training."
9. With every major purchase, you contemplate going for the off-grid version.
10. You have more manual tools than power tools.
11. You’ve washed entire loads of laundry by hand for either necessity or practice. (And not just your dainties... we’re talking about jeans and stuff!)
12. Your kids are not afraid of guns…or fingers pointed like guns... or pastries in the shape of guns…or drawings of guns.
13. When house hunting you look for multiple heat and water sources.
14. You store food in buckets... lots of buckets... like, maybe even a whole room full of buckets.
15. You garden with a determination and time commitment normally reserved for endurance athletes training for an Ironman triathlon.
16. If you don’t have a water source on your property, you have put in miles of footwork searching for one nearby, and have mapped multiple discreet routes to and from the source, and figured out how to haul the water back to your house on each route.
17. Your first instinct when hearing about some event on the mainstream news is skepticism. (False flag event, anyone?)
18. You believe that FEMA camps are real and that you are most likely on “The List”.
19. Instead of CNN, you have alternative news sites bookmarked in your favorites on your computer.
20. You have enough coffee/tea/favorite-caffeinated-item-of-choice to last you through three apocalypses.
21. You have enough over the counter medications stashed away to outfit a small-town pharmacy.
22. You have an instinctive mistrust of most cops or anyone working for an alphabet agency.
23. You could sink a ship with the weight of your stored ammo.
24. Looking for a fun weekend outing with the kids? Forget amusement parks –- the shooting range is where it’s at.
25. When the power goes out, you calmly light the candles and proceed with whatever you had been dong previously.
26. A longer-term power outage is called "practice."
27. If a like-minded person comes over to your house, they’ll realize you are "one of them" by seeing your reading material. Other folks won’t even notice. The FBI would call your copy of The Prepper’s Blueprint and your James Wesley Rawles fiction "subversive literature."
28. Your children carry a modified bug-out kit in their school backpacks.
29. You can and dehydrate food with the single-minded fervor of a Amish grandmother facing a seven-year drought.
30. Calling 911 is not part of your home security plan.

Daisy Luther is a freelance writer and editor who lives in a small village in the Pacific Northwestern area of the United States. She is the author of The Pantry Primer: How to Build a One Year Food Supply in Three Months. On her website, The Organic Prepper, Daisy writes about healthy prepping, homesteading adventures, and the pursuit of liberty and food freedom. Daisy is a co-founder of the website Nutritional Anarchy, which focuses on resistance through food self-sufficiency. Daisy’s articles are widely republished throughout alternative media. You can follow her on Facebook, Pinterest, and Twitter, and you can email her at daisy@theorganicprepper.ca

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(The Organic Prepper encourages everyone to add to this list.)