Three Hobbies For Preppers
Kevin Felts 01.12.18
Hobbies are supposed to be fun and help keep the kind occupied. They can also help expand our knowledge of certain fields. Hopefully, those fields can help in our prepping goals.
Prepping goals is an abstract term, because prepping / survivalism covers a wide range of topics. Is someone prepping for a natural disaster, prepsteading, homesteading, building a bomb shelter, or prepping for a plague?
One a personal note, one of my goals are prepsteading. Which is a combination of homesteading and prepping.
What hobbies would help cover a range of prepping goals?
Coin Collecting
Not just coins, but silver coins. Everyone should know pre-1965 (1964 and earlier) quarters and dimes are made out of silver. Okay, so what are good prices for those coins? Do you go to a local pawn shop and buy silver coins, or do you shop around for the best price?
Then there is the modern version of silver mining. Go to a bank or credit union and buy a roll of quarters and dimes. Go through the rolls and you may find silver coins. Then again, sometimes you find nothing. Either way, you have not lost any money.
Listening to cash registers is an easy, but rare, way to find silver. When a silver coin hits another coin, it makes a unique sound. I have gotten numerous silver quarters from unsuspecting people working a cash register. When I hear the sound of silver, I tell the person I collect coins and they have an old coin in their register. Usually, they will trade a quarter worth 25 cents for a quarter worth $5.
Botany
The study of plants; specially edible and medicinal plants. We could just say gardening, but that would exclude wild plants.
- What crops grow well in what areas.
- When a plant develops problems, what’s wrong
- What are common plant diseases?
- Which wild plants are edible?
- What parts of wild plants are edible?
Here in Southeast Texas there is a wild sticker vine that has a large potato like root. Native Americans would to dig the root up, let it dry, then grind it into a type of flour.
Ever heard of stinging nettle (bull nettle) tea? Or that bull nettle seeds are edible?
Master Naturalist
I am a certified Texas Master Naturalist. The course cost around $130, and lasted almost six months. I tell you what, I learned a lot. We did field work, had a weekly meeting, had guest speakers, and met new people. This is also a good way to give back to the community. However, I have not attended a meeting in several months.
Several years ago there was a local program where we would go to remote camping areas on a local river. We would clean the camping areas just before hunting season. The people who donated their time are the same ones who used the camping spots during hunting season. I wrote about the camping areas on my blog – Camping on the Angelina River.
Final Thoughts
We could go on all day about different activities:
- Hiking
- Camping
- Hunting
- Fishing
- Geocaching
- Target shooting
- Historical reenactment
- Reloading
There are so many activities to get involved in, there is no reason not to do “something” related to pepping.
