A lot of people are talking about the decline of the standard of living in the United States. While we definitely have our tent cities and crappy apartments, we should note that most of us have it pretty good.

I wanted to show you some typical housing for Baja California, Mexico. Let me precede this with the fact that I'm absolutely not trying to insult anybody's home. I just wanted to bring a little bit of a reality check from south of the border.

Baja is a state that is filled with extremes. This photo was taken from the dining patio of an upscale beachside restaurant on the Pacific Ocean. I got permission from the owner to use the photograph.

There are all sorts of homes here in Baja - everything from hillside mansions on ranches to oceanfront condos to downtown apartments. There are very few structures made of wood because there aren't many trees around here (aside from palm trees and fruit trees.) And if that weren't reason enough, the risk of wildfire would make anyone hesitant to use wood as a building material.

The home in the photo is not at all uncommon. You see many structures like this, cobbled together from whatever materials the owners have been able to acquire within their budget. Some of them have roofs, others are covered with tarps, and still others are a combination. There are no building inspectors and codes, at least not of which I'm aware.

I've visited some local friends who live in homes along these lines. Some had electricity that came from an extension cord running from another person's home. Others were hooked up to the grid. Still others are without electrical power. Running water is similar. You'll often see a garden hose poked through the window of one of these homes of mixed construction. Other people rely on water catchment during the rainy season and 200-gallon water tanks that they fill to meet their needs. (There's a water truck that delivers water.) I know another person who uses some solar-heated water on the roof for a shower and otherwise uses the 5-gallon jugs of bottled water for drinking, cooking, and washing.

Cooking and heating are generally powered by those 5-gallon barbecue-sized propane tanks.

Most places, but not all, have at least a small septic system that has to be pumped regularly. These generally use greywater for flushing.

Many neighborhoods of homes like this combined with campers and other structures can be found tucked in between gated condominium communities like the one in which I am staying. You might look at this and think, "This is the difference between the haves and the have-nots." You'd be incorrect. Nearby cities are filled with homeless people or folks living under tarps who would be thrilled to have such accommodations.

Again, this isn't a judgmental post. I just thought that some of you might find it interesting to see the homes where other folks live.

Quite honestly, visiting those homes gave me a great deal to think about considering the luxuries that most of us consider essential. It makes me feel hopeful because the homes that I have visited are clean, tidy, and filled with love and gratitude. We can survive and be happy, clean, and content with a lot less than our current lives would lead us to believe.

I'm not suggesting that I plan to live in a home that I've constructed from the goods I can acquire nor am I suggesting any of you do that, but it's important to see that it's entirely possible and it's far from the end of the world.

Daisy

"Doomsday" Prepping Goes Mainstream?

An article on the Psychology Today website asked, "Were the Doomsday Preppers Right?" in relation to the events of 2020. The answer? "Sort of."

The assessment was written by Dr. Allen Fetterman, a professor of personality and social psychology at the University of Houston. I'm going to assess Dr. Fetterman's assessment.

The article started off in a way that didn't seem promising, painting us as the pessimistic, ammo-hoarding, bunker-dwelling stereotype.

Dr. Fetterman shared his academic history that included years of research on "post-apocalyptic and doomsday prepping beliefs." He and his colleagues had neatly summarized the prepper personality type in a hypothetical way.

And then 2020 happened.

Fetterman felt that people cooperated better than his hypothetical preppers expected them to but that their worries about the shortage of resources was much more accurate, summarizing, "Therefore, while concerns about human nature are probably overly cynical, concerns about the availability of resources in post-apocalyptic scenarios may be warranted."

The article ended on a positive note, with a recommendation to stock up on some non-perishables and check out some preparedness suggestions (from the government, but still, Rome wasn't built in a day.)

So was Dr. Fetterman right? In my opinion, "Sort of." I think we're still on the edge of a dangerous precipice with regard to human nature and cooperation. But all in all, I felt his treatment of prepping was fair and particularly reasonable for a mainstream source.

You can take a look at his article here.

I did an interview with one of my very favorite blogger friends, Gaye Levy, who runs the delightful site Strategic Living.

Gaye was one of my early blogging mentors and a very dear friend. I was so thrilled with her review of my book.

We talked about what led me to the path of frugality, some of the emotional aspects of poverty that folks don't really like to discuss, and how preparedness and frugal living are related, but not the same.

As with every interview I've ever done with Gaye, her questions were really insightful and I hope you enjoy our chat.

You can check out the interview here.

This week, I didn't do a whole lot of prepping in the typical sense, but I did take on some extra work projects to increase my emergency fund. So - yes, it's prepping, but nothing terribly exciting to write about here, unless you want to envision me typing away on my little pink laptop.

That aside, I was absolutely thrilled to discover that Feedspot placed The Organic Prepper in the #3 position for the Top 100 Survival Blogs, Websites & Influencers in 2021 for Preppers. There are some fantastic sites on this list, so be sure to check it out.

I hope you had a prepared week!