Survival Expert Interview #3 – Tess Pennington, Ready Nutrition

This week’s survival expert interview is with Tess Pennington of Ready Nutrition.

What is your name?

Hi everyone. My name is Tess Pennington and I am the editor for www.ReadyNutrition.com

Please tell us a little bit about yourself…

I am a mom who loves to look into the natural ways of living. My kids roll their eyes at me constantly for trying to be uber mom (something I hope they will appreciate later on in life). I love art, music, and reading. My true passion is gardening and would love to begin practicing natural medicine.

I’m a geek about preparedness. My family calls me a prepper junkie. I love reading about all aspects of this subject and reading about past disasters hoping to find a way to avoid them in the future. I suppose that’s the nature of my business though. J I have recently written a preparedness guide/cookbook called The Prepper’s Cookbook.

After living in the city for my whole life, my husband and I decided to take the plunge and move to a less populated area. Currently, my family and I live on a ranch in the northwest where we are practicing self-reliant living and taking steps to grow and preserve our own food.

When did you start prepping?

I’ve always had some preparations. I grew up in Houston, TX, so I knew of the importance of having preparedness supplies. But it wasn’t until I had a family of my own and we were dealing with the aftermath of Hurricane Ike that I realized the range of preparedness that I wanted in my life.

A majority of the disaster lessons I have learned have also been from personal experience. We went through Hurricane Ike in Houston, TX and looking back, we weren’t as prepared as we should have been. We were without power for two weeks. The temperatures were still hot in Texas. The water sources were questionable, we had to throw all of our food out, gasoline was scarce – it was a nightmare. And when you have small children looking to you for the answers, you begin to really question yourself. And I promised myself that if I ever had to go through this again, I would be better prepared with supplies and skills. I learned a lot of lessons from that experience

Shortly after, in 2007 was when I started taking steps to make preparedness a main focus in my life. My husband and I started noticing that there was something wrong with the economy – things didn’t add up, something just didn’t look right and when the real estate bubble popped and investment banks started claiming bankruptcy, I realized that we needed to get some longer-term preparations in order. That’s when I started Ready Nutrition. I wanted to give people as many answers and help out in any way that I could.

Why did you start prepping?

Before I get into why I started prepping, I want to share a background story with you that literally changed my life and propelled me into prepping. In 2001, I was working at the Red Cross during the September 11^th attacks and my chapter became the headquarters for dealing with the aftermath. This literally changed the very definition of disaster for me. Before 9/11, I was just as complacent as everyone else and thought that disasters were just a theoretical contingency, and in an instant, it became a reality. I was the one that took the phone calls and had to hear the panic in voices of those calling in and we all witnessed firsthand – how unprepared our country was for handling this – not just from the standpoint of having a lack of supplies, but we saw people stranded in airports for a week with no money and as a country, we all felt the impact on an emotional level as well. We never thought this could happen to us. And I believe it changed our focus – it changed my focus.

So, the reason I started prepping was because I wanted to stop the complacency. I had the training and preparedness skills and wanted to bring awareness to an issue that I believe every family in the world should take steps to focus on. The more we are able to prepare for the disasters that are less likely they are to affect us and the easier it will be to transition during the aftermath.

What do you think the #1 threat to our safety is?

Without a doubt, I would say the #1 threat to our safety is the continued degradation of our economy.  As a country we are dealing with an epidemic of unemployment. Millions of families around the country are struggling to make ends meet and even more are depending on food stamps to put food on the table. It’s becoming quite clear that an economic recovery is nowhere in sight. As a whole (congress included), we need to take some drastic measures to control our spending habits, to cut corners and get out of debt. Many believe that this country is teetering on the edge of collapse, and I have to say that I tend to agree with them.

What’s your #1 tip to folks just getting started with their prepping?

Start small and add supplies a little at a time. We all have different reasons why we are preparing, but it involves investing in food, investing in supplies, tools, gear. All the while, you need to start taking steps to get out of debt.

Begin with a basic two week supply of food, water and supplies and then add onto a month’s worth of supplies, and so and so forth. In no time, you will be prepped and ready to go. But keep in mind that preparedness is also about knowledge and skills development, so take steps to educate yourself too.

If you are new to prepping and are overwhelmed by the shear enormity of the supplies and information you need, look into the 52-Weeks to Preparedness. It’s a comprehensive, step-by-step guide to help you create a preparedness foundation. You can It take your time through the program or go through it quickly. It can also serve as a guide and checklist to those preppers who are more seasoned.

But when you methodically take your time acquiring supplies, you will feel more at ease knowing you have everything you need.