Aging and Alone: Can I REALLY Be Prepared?

I know I’m not alone in this: we’re all growing older each day. However, these days, as I’m approaching my 56th birthday, I wonder, “How prepared can I really be on this tiny homestead on my own?” I thought I would take this opportunity to reflect on where things are at: my strengths, my weaknesses, what kind of SHTF I think I’m best prepared for, and what my survival superpower is. 

Everything I do is on my own and on a budget. So, you won’t find any gold vaults or secret high-end bomb shelters around here. What you will find is a lot of good old-fashioned elbow grease and some wisdom that has been hard-won from experience. 

My Strengths

My Mom grew up on a farm, and my grandfather could fix and fabricate anything he needed in his workshop there. When I was young, I remember my bicycle wouldn’t work…I went and told my Mom. My Mom said, “A bicycle really isn’t that complicated….just take a look at it and figure it out.” And so it began…

Even when I knew nothing, I have always been brave to fix many things. I learned about figuring things out from all those experiences. Now, I wouldn’t say that all of my fixes are pretty, but they do generally work! So, I am a good fixer and figure outer. 

I also take that strength to my garden, where I love to experiment and compare this row with that row, this planting location with that one. I always say that there are no mistakes, only learning opportunities.  Like that time that I found a road kill coyote, and hung and skinned it after watching a couple of videos. My first attempt! I was pretty pleased with myself.

My Weaknesses

I was a competitive athlete in my youth and used to pushing myself to the outermost limit of exertion regularly. These days, in my 50s, that doesn’t work out so well. Up into my forties, I could shovel a few thousand pounds of gravel a day. 

A serious back injury a couple of years ago set my shoveling back quite a bit. I was impatient with the injury. Recognizing that I have limitations is frustrating. I still find it hard to recognize that I’m over 50. Thankfully, my back continues to heal. I was out chopping kindling today and realized that I won’t “pay” for it like I would have last year. 

Still, this injury has seriously curtailed my physical activity for two years. I admit that I’m out of shape. I consider this to be my greatest weakness right now. I am slowly getting back to working out and plan to join some sports this year. In addition, I’ll be doing some hiking in our local parks with my full BOB starting in the spring.

Can I defend this little cabin on my own? No, but I could try. In that, I don’t think I’m different than anyone else, young or old, alone on a homestead. A truly effective defense would take a round-the-clock team.

My “Best” SHTF

Where I think I am best prepared is for the kind of SHTF that we’re in right now: a slow-growing one, like the frogs in the pot. I am ready for off-grid living. It’s hard work. I’ve done it before, but my little cabin is ready to go. My garden is set up, and I have years of seeds ready. I’m lucky that I have access to fresh water through many local streams and lakes. 

As Selco has observed previously, rural folks already have a lot of things in place to help them survive in a SHTF. I know what weeds to eat and I have multiple layers of food preservation to help me through the winter.

My Network

My survival superpower is not about me but the people I surround myself with. Seeing where things were headed, I have taken an extra effort to cultivate connections with like-minded people. We are all free spirits on the edge of the system. Many of my closest friends here have skills that complement my own: some friends are former trappers. One is keen to share her knowledge with me. Many are expert hunters. I have experience in these areas but not expertise. What I offer is my knowledge of herbalism, gleaned from decades of study under expert mentors, and also folk medicines from generational stories. I am also an expert gardener and have been meditating for over three decades.

What is important about these folks is that we’re all on the same page. We see the same trends, the same things in the “news.” We are all around the same age. We talk about plans/ideas for the future. I have assessed carefully how I spend my time; I don’t want to spend time with the frogs cooking unaware. I want to spend my time with the frogs building a ladder out of the pot.

A Work in Progress

Is all of this perfect, and every scenario accounted for? Heck no!

I know I need to improve my fitness and there are skills that I need to learn. I don’t want to end my life as a bad episode of Alone. However, I feel great about my current network, and I am moving in the right direction with my weaknesses.

My great-grandmother lived independently into her nineties, hoeing her own garden and carrying water from a neighboring farm. She’s my inspiration for how I want to age, apocalypse or not. I’d like to do her proud.