Welcome, New Preppers!

Ah, spring, the time of year when anything can happen and usually does, including rain, snow, earthquakes, tornadoes, floods, and fires all over the place... and that's just Monday. The world is going through a rough patch right now and lots of people are starting to look at prepping in a different way. Some are admitting that maybe, just maybe, having some things set aside for emergencies isn't such a bad idea. Others are demanding that all of those “hoarders” be punished and their supplies redistributed to those who couldn't be bothered to plan ahead. The truly evil are looking at ways to take what they want and are looking for opportunities, while ordinary people are stepping up and providing supplies and services to their neighbors. Everyone is getting an education on prepping, whether they wanted it or not.

If you're new to the idea of prepping, welcome to the family. We're not all a bunch of greedy psychopaths looking to take your money in exchange for some piece of gear with dubious utility or longevity, and here at Blue Collar Prepping, we deal in information and teaching instead of sales and marketing. You may have noticed the shortage of ads: no flashing banners or pop-ups, no email harvesting, no books or classes for sale. For the last six years we've been cranking out new articles almost every Monday through Friday to try to enlighten and entertain our readers. None of us have gotten rich off of this; in fact, several of us have lost money. We do it because we think you, the reader, should have good information about a topic that we think is important.

We also welcome questions and guest articles if you need or have specific information pertaining to prepping. There is a search box in the upper left-hand corner of the blog page that will let you check out our archive of articles. After six years we have over 1700 of them, so you may find some of what you're looking for in a previous post.

The writers do have a few rules that have served us well.

• We Have No Politics. I stretch this one some days, but most of the time we avoid taking sides in political issues. There are few things in today's world more divisive than politics, and we're not here to drive anyone away. Everybody deserves the information they need to survive an emergency, regardless of their political party or other “difference”. There are plenty of other blogs and webpages out there that cover the political sphere, and this is not one of them.
• We Promote No Specific Religion. This is close to the rule above, and is important because the writing pool is such a mixture of differing beliefs that we'd all quit if anyone tried to push their specific religion. As I have explained to a few, I'm a Chaplain, but I am not likely your Chaplain. I'm not here to push my beliefs; I'm here to pass on information on other matters.
• We Do Not Give Sales Pitches. Several of our writers have personal businesses, but you won't see them pushing their wares here. Our product reviews are done mainly on items that we have purchased with out own money (and on the rare occasions when an item was donated for testing & evaluation will state so), and we are not afraid to be honest in our reviews. If something is worthless, we'll let you know so you don't waste your money.
• We Keep It Personal. Most of our writing is based on personal experience, not a regurgitation of something we read in a book but have never tried ourselves. If we don't know something, we're not going to lie to you and say we do. The writers are scattered across geological, educational, ideological, age, and lifestyle divides, so we can probably find someone with personal experience on most matters.
• We Are Reasonable in Scope. The blog's name is Blue Collar Prepping, so you're not going to find descriptions of 10,000 sq ft “Doomsday Bunkers” or maps of where to fly your plane to escape a hurricane. We're working-class folks and we try to keep in mind that most people have to live within a budget.
• We Are Civil. We don't deride or ridicule anyone other than a few really obnoxious snake oil salesmen out there. We'll call out a charlatan, but we welcome questions and differing opinions. Conspiracy theories and racist commentary are a good way to get blocked and ignored around here, as they serve no constructive purpose and hinder the flow of information.

Other than the blog, there are several ways to reach us:

• Our Facebook group (moderators are on duty)
• Our Discord server (this one is new, but I monitor it all day)
• Email (this one doesn't get checked very often)

There are no stupid questions, and we were all new to prepping at one time, so feel free to ask us anything.