Crotchety old man…

You know what really made me happy and gave me a lot of satisfaction? Over the last couple of weeks a few things I did for some folks:

• Took care of a neighbor’s farm and animals so his family could go camping for a few days.
• Repaired a switch on a friends ATV without him knowing it.
• Spent a few hours working on our community’s dirt roads with my tractor.
• Cooked 6 meals for a family in need.
• Built a parking area, complete with a culvert, on a neighbor’s 4a so they could have their family up for the weekend…and start building a shop in preparation for them building a “get-away” cabin.
• Baked 4 loaves of bread for neighbors just for the heck of it.
• Helped a friend move his family to a new home.
• Helped a neighbor put up drywall in his bathroom to restart his stalled house remodeling project.
• Graded around a neighbor’s house because he couldn’t afford to have a company come in and do it.

And the list goes on and on. And I loved every minute of it and look forward to doing more !

When I retired I made a deal with God…I would thank Him, and worship Him, by helping others. And it is amazingly satisfying…I feel like I am really helping others and having a positive impact in their lives. In other words…being both useful and helpful through serving others.

Now…a reality check!!

An example in contrast: I spent about 20 hours on the three-part series SitRep – 08/29/20, researching, writing, finding & adding graphics, editing, etc. As a result of that effort…123 people read Part #1, 104 people read Part #2, and only 77 people read Part #3. Yeah, that really, really sucks! To make it even worse…just three people “liked” Part #1, two people “liked” Part #2, same for Part #3. And one person made a comment…yup, just one. That’s pathetic…really, really sad!!!

And don’t be insulted…the pathetic, sad, sucks, etc. applies to what I am doing, what I wrote…not anything to do with what ya’ll are doing. It is just pretty obvious that the article simply missed the point for what folks are looking for. In other words…I am not meeting a “need” with my assessments, suggestions, writing, etc.

I looked at the number of “followers” I have…pretty dang low for the Internet, pretty low for “prepper” websites as well. And I’ve only gained a couple new followers in the last couple of weeks. Pitiful by Internet standards !

Well, I am not going to drag this out…I’ve come to several conclusions:

1. I don’t think there are more than a handful of folks who find any value in my knowledge, experience, writing style, my vision/version of “prepping”, or my guidance in emergency preparedness.
2. I am not making much, if any, impact on people being prepared for emergencies, disasters, or grid-down events.
3. My time spent on writing articles is virtually wasted when compared to alternative uses of my time in helping others.

So folks…four “Tip” articles came out this morning that I already had ready to go and scheduled, so I just bumped them up to come out this morning. Those will be my last articles unless something drastically changes or I see some special need in the future. Well, actually…there will be a posting on 9/11. That has been a very special day to me and this year was a turning point for me and that experience 19 years ago. I will be updating the Table of Contents at some point in the coming days, weeks, or months as time permits. And then the website will sit out there as a dusty old book sitting on a shelf for anyone who stumbles upon it.

Take care folks…I hope and pray we all manage to get through what is coming…you will be in my prayers.

Here is the follow-up article written a week later after all the comments to this article. <click here to read the follow-up>