Although there's nothing wrong with that if it's what you prefer.
I'm no expert, but I'm willing to share what I know and hope you'll do the same.
Sometimes you just get lucky.
I went to the city yesterday. A family member had a doctor appointment. Before heading back home, we stopped to pick up a few things at Walmart. Moments after we left, probably before we even were out of the parking lot, someone was shot and killed inside the store. https://www.lubbockonline.com/story/news/crime/2020/12/04/police-investigating-deadly-shooting-north-lubbock-walmart/3832945001/
Part of me is glad I would have been prepared to deal with a bad guy-- as long as my situational awareness was what it should have been-- but mostly I'm glad I was lucky enough to have forgotten about the 4th item I intended to get. Any delay would have put us in the store when the shooting happened. Any delay at all.
I doubt there was much danger to anyone but the victim. It sounds like a targeted attack. Probably not even worth the risk (physical and legal) of drawing on the shooter. But it's still better to be armed than not.
No matter how prepared you are, luck is going to play a part. You may be able to stack luck in your favor by being prepared, but you can't plan for everything. This is why situational awareness is so critically important. Always. "It can't happen here" is guaranteed to be wrong.
One of the more fun things (to me) that qualifies as prepping is stocking up on ammo.
While prices are better now than they have been in a while, I was still having to travel an hour and a half to find prices that made sense. Locally, ammunition was 2 or 3 times the price that I could pay in the bigger city 90 miles away.
Fortunately, that situation has recently changed, but I found a great way to deal with it before the change, and I'm sticking with it, too.
It's a business called Ammo Squared. You sign up and subscribe for a set dollar amount and they set up an ammunition account for you. Then you can have it shipped to you.
If you use my link-- https://ammo2.me/dullhawk --and spend at least $20 in the first month, both you and I get $25 in free ammo. That's a pretty good deal. Then, after you've set up your account, you can share your own link with your friends and both of you can get free ammo the same way. It's kind of awesome.
If you wait until you have an account value of over ...
Every little bit adds up.
Due to medical situations, I've found myself without money to spend on larger projects such as firewood-- which might be a problem-- but there's always something you can do to prep.
A recent project for me was getting all my oil lamps ready to go. That's not the only alternative lighting I have, but it's my favorite.
I checked and changed the wicks (where needed), cleaned off any dust that had accumulated, and topped off the kerosene. You may prefer liquid paraffin since it stinks less, but I have gallons of kerosene on hand. I only broke one chimney, and I had a spare. (Note to self, keep an eye out for more chimneys at thrift stores and yard sales.)
I also decided to try to address a minor problem with the lamps. If you have oil lamps that you don't use all the time you'll know that the oil evaporates. This time I did something I hope will slow that process.
I covered the wick slot (don't know the technical name, but look at the photo) with aluminum foil I had...
