Gallimaufree

My friends call me Noddy.

I’ve been involved in survivalism for more than 30 years and have honed a number of survival skills. I’ve helped with search and rescue teams, but my desire to learn all I could about surviving didn’t crystallize until the Murrah Bombing in Oklahoma City. I was there that day, on the north side of the building away from the blast. I wasn’t hurt in it – just slightly damaged hearing that didn’t become evident until weeks later.

The days and weeks following the bombing, I helped with feeding the searchers, taking phone calls, and sitting at the counseling tables helping people cope with what happened. That’s when I got my pastoral counseling certifications. Knowing that disaster – man-made or human – could strike at any time anywhere, I decided I would be prepared and so would as many people as I could reach.

That preparedness came in handy when the May 3rd tornado tore through Oklahoma City, Chickasha, Moore, Del City, and Midwest City.

It came in handy when the I-40 bridge collapsed under the impact of a barge.

It came in handy when the shuttle disintegrated as it descended and scattered debris over Oklahoma and Texas.

It came in handy when Sept. 11 happened.

It came in handy when my children chose to join the military and go to war.

It came in handy when the hurricanes Rita and Katrina devastated the Gulf Coast.

It came in handy during several serious ice storms.

You’ll notice every one of these survival situations occurred in cities and urban areas. Most survival groups focus their efforts on surviving outside of cities, and most prepare for nuclear disaster. This is all well and good, but until a nuclear disaster occurs, we have all these other situations in which we need to be prepared and to survive,

With the depression we are entering, we’ll need even more urban survival skills. This blog is concerned with information that can help people who live in cities and suburbs survive the various situations we may encounter – up to and including the dreaded nuclear holocaust.

I grew up in rural Germany. I was a goosegirl for a while, then grew old enough to behead and pluck chickens, and then on to castrating pigs, milking goats and cows, and making sausages – all on a woodburning stove and with no running water. My family was wealthy because we had a two seater outhouse with a covered area for hanging our winter wash to “dry”. I was apprenticed to the baker for a while, but he died of an auto accident, and my apprenticeship was sold to an herbal apothecary. I kept the Yeast Beastie I was given by the baker (Heike is her name) – and now, nearly 5 decades later, I still have her.

I completed my apprenticeship as an herbal apothecary, took my journeyman years, and passed my master’s exam.

And then I came to the US, and discovered all of my education was for naught. Still being young, I started over. I became degreed in philosophy and fairytales, and discovered I’d done that at a time when fairytales were in huge disfavor. So, still being young, I started over again. I became an advertising artist, and won awards for some of my designs. Family needs caused me to relocate and I had to start over again. I was still youngish, so I became a librarian. Family needs caused me to leave that to stay home to raise children. So I did that. And then I re-entered the workforce in much reduced straits. I spent time in insurance, in oil law, in tech support for computer software, and in being a receptionist.

And throughout all of this, I kept up my skills, the ones I learned as a child, and the ones I learned as an apprentice and journeyman and master, and the ones I learned in college and the real world, and along with them, I increased my spiritual knowledge and skills. I added in a variety of survival skills and a number of just plain fun skills.

Here, I offer all I have learned, and share what I am still learning, for learning doesn’t end until life does. And perhaps, it doesn’t end then, either, but continues in another way.

I hope the information I’ve learned and continue to learn comes in handy for anyone who comes here as well.