Allyson

The Rule of Threes is pretty simple.

• Three minutes without air.
• Three hours without shelter.
• Three days without water.
• Three weeks without food.
• Three months without hope.

I’ve heard that this was designed by FEMA, but I have no idea. My family has been using it for close to two decades, and maybe longer. It’s not meant to be a “complete list” of what is needed to prepare for emergencies. Instead, it’s more of a mnemonic. It reminds you of what’s most important in your preps. There are lots of mnemonics you can learn.

This is a longish one, folks, so check out what’s behind the cut…

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I’m a prepper. The term “prepper” means different things to different people. For some, it evokes images of old underground bunkers filled with canned goods and wall mounted, folding beds. For others, it’s more akin to what grandma did when she put away the harvest from her kitchen garden. Still other folks consider it to be stockpiling firearms to raid the rest of us. I’m sure there are a hundred or more points in between my three, as well.

So what exactly is prepping? It’s a short form term for “preparing for emergencies” or “preparing for the apocalypse.” There are at least as many ways to prep as there are people on the planet, and maybe more. No one way is definitively right or wrong. As an example, the Mormons are required to be always prepared for the end of times, which they are told will last just under two years. Therefore, their church insists they always have two years of food on hand, along with anything else they need to survive until the end times are over. While I may not be invested in their end times prophecies, the principle is a good one.

I tend to prepare for 18 months of emergency. I try to be fairly flexible in my preps, because I don’t know if TEOTWAWKI will happen like Nagasaki, or more like the recent pandemic. I have a little bit of many things, designed to cover the most important bases for my family. Your preps probably are (and should be) different from mine, because your family will need different things, and more importantly, has different skills than my own.

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I talk with AWA a lot about some pretty esoteric topics. Lately, talk has surrounded some of the 2A cases he’s been following, Rahimi in particular. It has really gotten me to thinking.

I believe originally (and this is opinion, as I really don’t know and I haven’t looked it up) jails were meant to be a place to stick someone when they did a bad thing. It was a punishment, a grown up version of time out. The greater the bad thing, the longer the jail time. Somewhere along the line, the goal became to rehabilitate prisoners into better people who wouldn’t be going out and committing more crimes. In general, I tend to agree with that idea, though I’m not certain it should be done while a prisoner is actually IN jail. But regardless, there are always going to be those people who simply cannot be rehabilitated. They will always pose an ongoing threat to free people. The Mansons of the world, as it were, should never be allowed out.

When it comes to the scary “big” criminals like Dahmer, Manson, Berkowitz, etc… it’s easy to look and say, “Yep, lock ’em up and throw away the key.” It’s also very easy to prove that they will never be able to safely walk among other human beings. Rahimi isn’t a Dahmer, though. He’s an average dirtbag. There’s no question he’s guilty of the crimes he committed. He’s trash. But the crimes he’s committed will likely land him somewhere between 2 and 20 years. Reading about the cases he’s accused of, it’s looking more like the lower number than the higher one. Regardless, it means he’ll be out on the street while still relatively young and vital. Yet, looking at his record, what assurance do We the People have that Mr. Rahimi won’t go out and shoot up another Whatsaburger, or cave in the head of his next girlfriend?

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If you’re coming here from GFZ, you may already know me. Over there, I used the nickname Hagar, because I was very unsure about posting when AWA first asked me to do so. I’m certainly farther left than most people reading this blog, but I’m definitely not “Left.” I’m not “Right” either, though I do seem to be drifting that way on many issues. I spent a lot of time over on GFZ looking into how the Left perceived things, and tried to explain it to everyone here, to foster communication and learning. I will continue to do that here on Vine of Liberty.

But… I’m also many more things. I’m a re-enactor, specializing in the late 14th century England, and 18th century America. I’m an author, with several books and many articles under my belt. I’m a cook, which is reflected in both my re-enacting and my writing. I’m an interfaith minister. I suspect that, now I’m openly myself, I’ll write more about all of those things here on the blog. If there’s a topic you’d like to know about, let me know and I’ll see if I or someone I know has information. If you want information from the Left, I’m happy to provide, if I can.

I love to start conversations about tough topics, and so I tend to read and respond to replies relatively quickly. I have a long-standing personal rule that I don’t interact with certain types of replies, though. People who do name-calling, fat shaming, or are generally dicks, I simply don’t respond to. If something goes over the top, I might let AWA know about it, but most of the time I just don’t respond to it. You’re welcome to your thoughts, and I’m welcome to ignore them. 😉 As an example, I don’t respond to posts about “Obumma” or “tRump” or other bastardizations of presidents’ names. A long time ago, someone explained to me that people who use such rhetoric are generally doing so because they lack the intellectual oomph to go head to head, and so I don’t embarrass those who do it by engaging them. Just my little bit of community service.

On the other hand, politely challenging my viewpoints will almost always get a response out of me. I love to learn, and so if you’re giving me an honest challenge, I will do my best to rise to it and educate myself. I won’t always agree with others, and certainly don’t expect people to agree with me all the time. But I work very hard to present factual information, with opinions being clearly labeled as such.

I’m a staunch 2A gal. I’m a staunch “separation of religion and state” gal as well. Religious freedom is a big one for me. Because I spent my childhood in Canada, I know the woes of socialist healthcare, and so I definitely am not a fan of Obamacare. I am very much a sincere and devout convert to my new home country, and I love America very much. I’m part of this blog, and was part of GFZ, because I see the harm that the “great divide” between Left and Right has caused and is causing, and I want to do what I can to help heal it. I realize the writings of a random woman on a small blog in the middle of New England really isn’t going to do much for the country as a whole, but it’s what I can do, and so I do.

You will probably see a lot of posts about myself and the Fort at No. 4, because it is an important part of my life. I love teaching history to people, especially in a setting where those who come through can touch and taste and interact with that history like they do at the Fort. I believe making history come alive is the secret to making it interesting for kids, and so I patiently churn butter and make fried bread and teach the school groups about building fires in the beehive oven. I try to make it fun, which automatically makes it interesting.

Another thing you’ll probably see from me, if people are at all interested, is stuff about prepping. I tend to look at prepping as more “how to live comfortably without internet, electricity, running water, and central heating” than “bunkers and MREs.” That’s reflected in my hobbies and my interests. I have many subjects to touch on, from making lye from wood ash (which I’ll actually be doing at the fort, at some point this fall) to washing clothes by hand. Again, if there’s something in particular that interests you, let me know and I’ll either write about it, or find someone who does!

So there you have it. I’m me, Allyson, and I was Hagar. Nice to meet you all. I’m kind of happy to get out from under the shroud.

Allyson,
who is feeling at peace today.