It’s Your Life – That’s the Most Important Thing: Pennington & Luther Interview

On Friday, September 19, we sat down with Tess Pennington of Ready Nutrition, author, publisher and preparedness specialist, and Daisy Luther, who is The Organic Prepper as well as an author, publisher and preparedness specialist. Between these two very creative, loving women they have well over 20 years of experience and knowledge in making it happen. In the following 35 minute interview we cover several vital components for anyone that is interested in protecting their family during a crisis situation.

We begin the conversation discussing the fires that are currently raging all across California and discuss some of the ways a person can help themselves before a fire gets to the front door. Since most of us don’t live in California we approach a fire scenario from what most people will have to deal with, which is a fireplace or fires caused by natural disasters.

Natural disasters like tornadoes, earthquakes and hurricanes usually create fires in your neighborhood from gas lines bursting or your neighbor’s gas grill getting tossed around and punctured, which causes something to ignite. This then spreads throughout your neighborhood. One of the most important things a person can do to protect their families and friends is to help educate your neighbors. We discuss various ways to help you help them and how everyone can benefit.

One of the most important aspects of preparedness are your neighbors. Your family, unless they live in your neighborhood, are not going to be part of your immediate support group. We are all going to need as much help as possible, regardless of whether it’s a natural disaster on a fairly large scale, a small localized SHTF scenario or full scale grid-down, dirty-bomb type situation. Every neighborhood is going to need people who are informed, trust worthy and willing to share information.

Today would be a good day to get to know your neighbors. Today would be a good day to reach out to your neighbors with some fresh baked cookies or a glass of tea. Do whatever it takes to have a realistic conversation to get to know them. My wife and I know all the people immediately around us. Do they know anything of what we are doing to be good stewards? Absolutely not. However, they do know that I am plugged in to real news and real information – and that I know things that they do not. Who do you think these eight to ten people are going to turn to if something goes wrong? What I am going to be able to do is educate them. If the situation turns ugly, we already have a plan to do something different. While we are going to help, we are not fools and will not put ourselves in a situation that could potentially cause ourselves harm.

How will we get out of our neighborhood? What form of transportation would be best? What kind of boots or walking shoes are going to be best for an urban setting, rugged terrain or roads filled with debris? How do we get to our safe spot? Automobile, bicycle or walking? This is the next scenario we approach and I think you will be very happy with the information that is shared. The approach includes several people, including spouses, children, and extended family members. Very few of us live alone, so we need to think about how several people are going to be able to move about safely and quickly. Speed is going to be our friend, if the SHTF. If speed is not our friend, then we will need to be really smart about how we move and when we move and the mode of transportation is going to be a key factor. Again, providing information to the people that will be in your life when the SHTF could mean the difference in getting out timely, safely and altogether or people losing their lives.

“…we’ve asked people for so long to prepare. This message isn’t something of hysteria, it’s common sense and practicality. There are events that are happening in this world that are outside of our control and the only thing that we can control is how prepared we’re going to be to face that issue and survive it.”

Well said. If you haven’t started preparing for different situations today would be a great day to start.

How about someone new to prepping? Where does one start? Winter is rapidly approaching. For someone just awakening to the need for stewardship, would winter items be a practical starting point? Or, where exactly should a person who is new to prepping begin? Daisy and Tess have some great insight as to where to start. We are not discussing theories but the reality of winter power outages –  for example, storms that knock down power lines and auto accidents that take out a fire hydrant, resulting in your neighborhood being without water for three days. These situations happen every day.

If you want to be a good steward of your life and for your family, listen up and get busy!

Additional Resources

The Prepper’s Blueprint: The Step-By-Step Guide To Help You Through Any Disaster

The Pantry Primer: How to Build a One Year Food Supply in Three Months