Keeping Sane in Times Like These

Do you ever get to the point where you are ready to leave for the hills? Nearly every time I turn on the TV I am overwhelmed with the insanity of how bad the economy is, yet we are hearing about green shoots~ considering the fact that yet another stimulus is being mentioned and the health package...it is crazy. I wrote that sentence as a run-on to give the out of breath-ness I feel.

The incredible speed that things are changing is shocking to say the least. How can we keep level headed in such fast paced times? The television and movie industry are biased beyond belief with the likes of Jeanine Garafalo calling those who are against more taxes as ignorant folks "hating on the black man."

So what can you do? As a person who has loved history and the incredible gifts that man has gave us over the past few thousand years, I can offer a wonderful relaxing solution to calm you and your family at the close of each day. Turn off the TVs the computers and all that is connected to the insanity and pick up a good book.

My first suggestion is endearingly called the good book, and that is the Bible. Even if you are not religious or a Christian, the Bible is written so amazing that the prose will lift you. Even our most liberal universities the bible is studied for its literature value. Reading Revelation is like following the evening news...you will not miss the prophecies that are unfolding.

In school the required reading of classics were often met by disgruntled noises, but now as most of us are older, and have experienced life, reading the classics will be eye-opening. You see they are real now, and the stories written long ago by people long dead, show us that man is unchanging and the passions, dreams, angst, and battles we still wish for.

I strongly urge to fellow preppers to take a few moments each evening to break and read.

During your prepping, if you are like me, you venture to thrift stores to find items for your storage, so swing over and browse the books and collect a few classics. I have not paid more than 30 cents per book.

Here is my short list of books to have around and review. If times get truly bad and many preppers begin pulling their children out of public schools, these books will come in handy to homeschool the kids.

1) the Bible
2) the works of Shakespeare- Romeo and Juliet, Macbeth, Othello, Hamlet, Much Ado About Nothing...
3) the works of Charles Dickens- A Christmas Carol, A Tale of Two Cities, Great Expectations...
4) the works of Mark Twain- The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, The Thirty Thousand Dollar Bequest, the Complete Book of Short Stories...
5) the works of Edgar Allan Poe- The Tell- Tale Heart, The Gold Bug, The Pit and The Pendulum...
6) the works of Arthur Conan Doyle-The Hound of the Baskervilles, Sherlock Holmes...
7) the works of H.G. Wells- The Time Machine, The War of the Worlds...
8) the works of Herman Melville- Moby Dick...
9)the poetry of Robert Frost, Walt Whitman
10) Johann Wyss-Swiss Family Robinson
11)the Little House series by Laura Ingalls Wilder- these are wonderful pioneering books- good for the whole family.
12) the works of Louis Lamour- these are really good as they are all about self reliance, honor, and the code of the west which used to be values we held as a nation.
13) the Constitution, the Declaration of Independence, the Magna Carta...


As a prepper we must never forget that mental well being is important. Adding a few books to your prepping lifestyle will make all the difference. Unlike most of the prep items we accumulate, this can be utilized today, and every day thereafter. Turn off everything, and bring the family together around the table and read to each other.

One of the bookshelves on we have on Double Nickel Farm.

(c) Double Nickel Farm
Jennifer