The world seems to be going to shit in multiple different shapes, sizes, colors, flavors, and textures. We have a complete reliance upon technology coupled with a generalized inability of un-prepped Americans to care, provide, produce for themselves, having zero survival skills.

Rob and I say to each other at least once a week that we definitely moved to the middle of nowhere, and surrounded ourselves with acres of our own fertile land, with two fresh water sources, at exactly the right time. We got out of the city and the ‘burbs, and we set up camp in the country. It makes me feel safe and secure.

If the world falls apart:

We have 45 acres of forest, full of the game beasts found in woodland areas – deer, rabbits, turkeys, squirrels, This kind of meat will feed our family.

We have 40 acres of open field. These fields were home to about 50 head of cattle for decades. You won’t find more fertile land. Our grassland and pasture would feed herds and flocks to provide meat, dairy, and poultry. The crop production we have already begun to learn and master will feed our family.

We have two productive natural springs, from an underground Tennessee limestone aquifer, and two active creeks. The larger spring puts out gallons of clean, fresh water every single day, regardless of rainfall levels. When the world falls to shit, a fresh water source will be hundreds of times more valuable than any currency.

We have two small ponds on the property, that are fed both by groundwater and rainwater runoff. These have long-served as water sources for livestock, and would allow us to hydrate a herd.

My parents, my daughter, and my soon-to-be son-in-law will be with us already. In addition to the relief of being surrounded by those we love – with no fear of losing contact with one another should the worst cyber war take out our means of communication – it also means we have the work force to survive and prosper.

Although my parents are blessedly healthy, and smart enough to have saved a small fortune for their own retirement, they are getting older. I will never place my parents (nor in-laws) in a nursing home. Instead, we asked them to move to Tennessee to be with us. We deeded them five acres of our land – whichever five they wanted – and have had the pleasure to watch them to build their dream home on the land they hand-picked as their forever. Ana moved back to Clarksville after she graduated college as well. When we build our own forever dream home in the back 40, she’d like to purchase from us the small stone cottage we live in now, the one that came with the property. (Yes, we will make our own daughter buy that house from us. We will not just give it to her, and she will pay the market price.)

I’m not a pessimist or a survivalist or an off-grider or a doomsday prepper, but we are prepared should all fall apart. In watching national news media, social media, the dissolution of race relations, the dissolution of international relations, there is nothing more comforting to me than the knowledge that, if all else falls away, my family will be together, and we have the resources to be 100% self-sufficient on our land.