I remember the first time I went hiking as a youth. It was a short hike, my backpack was overloaded, and I was a mess long before we made it halfway.
As time went on, my knowledge of backpacking grew. I got better, lighter equipment. And most importantly, I gain muscle strength. This did not happen overnight. It took hike after hike. Trial and error. Learning from others to find the best way to do something.
Homesteading and emergency preparedness are no different.
The first time you raise chickens some will probably die. You might lose some to wildlife before you figure out how best to protect them. Your first garden will probably be shocking bad, not produce much, and might even die before you get a harvest.
But each season that goes by you will learn something new. Next year’s garden will probably be better than this year. And so, on it goes.
You can’t master something by theory only.
No matter how much time a new doctor spends in school, they won’t master complex surgery without hesitation until they have done it a few times. Teachers don’t come from college and instantly teach a class of 4th graders. They spend time shadowing someone who has been in the field.
Mastery won’t come easy. And certainly not fast.
But to get to a level of mastery, you must put in the reps. And even then, you will still fail at times.
Life is not about a check list of things. It’s not put in a garden, check it off the list, and never do it again. It’s about putting in the time, to grow the best garden possible, so your family can survive. And doing it again and again until you can get those darn tomatoes to grow without drowning (ask us how we know).