March 28, 2024

Getting to know Chris

This week I have touched a little on community. I’m enjoying getting to know those of you who e-mail and post comments and I thought I would share a little about myself. I posted a while back about Friday content. If any of you want to answer these questions and send them to me I’ll post them as time allows. If you have an online business or blog you want to mention, feel free.

1. What do you do for a living?
a. I am level 2 client side IT for a large company in the medical industry.

2. If you could do anything you wanted for a living, what would that be?
a. I would own a large acreage set up with permaculture, gardening and livestock. I would have training facilities and cabins set up so that people could come for a weekend or longer and learn preparedness, homesteading and permaculture, outdoor skills and more. I don’t own all of these skill sets so I would have guest instructors. I would then document what I have learned via the blog. Hey! A guy can dream!

3. What is your favorite book?
a. Anything written by Raymond E. Feist. I’m a fantasy nerd, so what? 😉

4. What is your favorite movie?
a. Braveheart or the Lord of the Rings movies.

5. What is your favorite food?
a. Right now it is Wasa Crisp bread with peanut butter and banana.

6. What is your favorite time of the year?
a. The fall. I like sweatshirt weather and the changing of the leaves.

7. If you could vacation anywhere, where would that be?
a. I know of a cabin that is only one of two on a lake with plenty of peace and quiet and fish to catch.

8. What is your favorite fun thing to do?
a. Video games, I just wish I had more time to play.

9. If you could have lunch with anyone alive, or dead, who would it be and why?
a. Jesus or my grandpa. Jesus because I have so many questions and my grandpa because I miss him.

10. If you were the President for one day, what would you do?
a. 3 laws; One is a flat consumption tax of 10-15%. Two is that congress must read every stinking word of every bill they try to pass and no bill could be larger than 5 pages. Third, drug test for welfare. If I have to take one to get a job to pay for welfare, they’re going to take one to collect it. (saw the last one on Facebook)

11. What is your favorite kind of music?
a. I like many different kinds; rock, contemporary Christian, blues, classical, a little country. I don’t listen to the radio, so I don’t know that I could name one of the top 40 artists.

12. What is one example of how God moved in your life?
a. My wife and I have a good marriage. I give the credit for that to God. When things get hard, we go to Him.

13. How long have you been a prepper?
a. Seven years or so.

14. What is your biggest speed bump in prepping?
a. Money, as I am sure it is for most.

15. Would you call yourself a prepper, homesteader, survivalist or (add something else)?
a. Prepper, but would love to be able to call myself a homesteader one day.

16. What is the one prep item you want but don’t have?
a. A bug out location, hence a prepper and not a homesteader.

17. What is your number one reason for prepping?
a. I see the shape the world is in and do not want to be dependent on anyone to feed, or protect my family.

18. What got you started in preparedness?
a. The short answer is that I firmly believe the Lord told me to. The long answer, maybe some other time.

19. Which type of event concerns you the most?
a. Pandemic. With almost all other event’s, small or large, there is action that can be taken to mitigate their impact. With a pandemic, there isn’t much we can do besides isolate ourselves and pray a vaccine is found.

20. What is one thing people wouldn’t know about you?
a. I have Asperger Syndrome. For those who don’t know, Asperger’s is a high functioning form of Autism. There are many different things that go along with Asperger’s. One of which is social awkwardness and not picking up on social queues.

I’m usually a very private person, but I wanted to let you know for a couple of reasons; my wife acts as an editor for all of the articles that get posted. She does the normal editor tasks; spelling, punctuation, grammar, etc. Because of the Asperger’s, I come across a little mechanical at times. My wife softens my words on those occasions.

We both make sure that the context never gets changed. The other reason I’m telling you is because I post to Facebook, answer e-mail and reply to comments on the blog on my own, so if things come across a little different, that’s why.

One of the symptoms of Asperger’s is being intensely focused or obsessed with a topic, for me that topic is preparedness and this blog. I spend a significant amount of time dedicated to both, keeping a balance can take effort. That is partly because it might sound weird, but I find great joy in researching, learning and writing about the things I have learned.

Some of you have posted comments or sent e-mails thanking me for this blog. While I appreciate the compliments, the way I see it, I just do the typing, God deserves the credit. I’m not a writer by nature but I enjoy sharing with all of you. The fact that anyone shows up to read what I write is humbling. I am truly grateful for all of you and look forward to meeting all of you, in this world or when we all get home.