Most of us aren’t thinking of living in a van for survival. With our families securely at home and plans to shelter in place, it’s the last thing on our minds.

But isn’t it the way of catastrophes and turmoil to force us into that which seems abnormal to us now? And aren’t we preparing for things to be different than they are at present?

Believe it or not, some are choosing to live in vans. It’s not always a last resort for the down and out homeless.

Below are a couple of videos featuring individuals who live in vans and like it. They’ve customized their vehicles to make them as homey as possible.

Organization and efficiency are key. And the Vagabloggers featured in the first video have it down to a science.

This second video features one woman’s customized van. She shares her thoughts on what she likes about dwelling in a van..

A family might want an RV or pickup with a camper shell. Is this something you’d consider? Why or why not?

Is it possible that those who are already living on and off the road have a survival edge? Remember, think survival. Think the unthinkable.

View more about living in a van here.

There’s something we don’t like to think about in the midst of our prepping for survival. But it’s the undercurrent that flows with all we do to be prepared.

We’re trying to beat the Grim Reaper. In other words, we don’t want to die.

We want to prolong life as long as possible. After all, that’s what survival is about, isn’t it? Aren’t we aiming to outlive others around us when we’re in the midst of adv ersity?

But the fact is, you and I are going to die someday. And before that happens, we may see many others die around us. And it will be painful.

Perhaps those who die will be friends or beloved family members. Perhaps cherished pets.

Perhaps neighbors will die in a tornado, flood or fire. Many deaths will result from a societal and economic collapse the likes of which we’ve never seen before. It could be a One Second After scenario.

I’m not predicting anything. I can’t know the future, and neither can you. I believe the prophecies found in Scripture give us the big picture, but the exact details are yet to unfold. Obviously, Harold Camping and others of his ilk who went before him got it wrong.

Moving through the mists of tomorrow is one of the most difficult challenges of prepping. We’re preparing for the unknown. But to ignore it is folly.

Once it was human nature to practice self preservation. To do anything other than what we think of as prepping would have been laughed at as foolishness. Has self preservation been conditioned or bred out of us?

Ignoring death is to be in denial. It simply postpones the inevitable. Our ancestors acknowledge death as an ordinary, inescapable part of life. It’s time we do the same.

Yet, we prepare. It’s one of those nagging dichotomies we face as long as we draw breath.

Prepping should be an acknowledgement that death is real, but we’re making the choice to face it with wisdom and courage.

Someone who calls herself the Patriot Nurse shares thoughts on the deaths that will happen if or when we face major calamity throughout the country. It’s sobering to say the least.

Are you ready to think the unthinkable? Watch these videos. Then why not share your thoughts with a comment below?

I have been reading about the diet of Black Soldier Fly larvae. They don’t eat plants. I mean they eat cucumbers, but not the vines. They eat meat, and they eat fruit, vegetables and all kinds of manure.

So what if you fed different plants to rabbits? Think of all the plants rabbits eat. Then you let the Black Soldier Fly larvae eat the rabbit manure. Would not have to be their only diet, but I want to find out about that. They eat cattle and horse manure, and horses and cows eat plants.

Then the grubs could be a major part of the diet for chickens and ducks. So you would be getting eggs from plants via rabbits.

Sound like a lot of work? Maybe some day soon, some of us will have no jobs, and this could be an occupation?

As a child I had both rabbits and chickens and loved taking care of them. The only thing missing was the Black Soldier Fly larvae. Who knew about them in those days?

I really want to try it this summer. What do you think, George?

I am so excited about an insect that God created I can’t stop talking about it, or them! Imagine a bug that can’t bite or sting you, does not want to invade your home, but only lives to eat every kind of garbage and manure and produces perfect food for poultry, fish, frogs, and many pets!

The adults live only a few days, mate in flight and lay about 500 eggs that hatch into larvae that do the above. But, you may say, “Who wants to harvest garbage or manure-eating larvae?” Yuck! Here comes the neat part, they self harvest!

The mature larvae have the rare ability to climb out of their feeding bins when they are of size. They climb a ramp you provide, to seek a place to pupate. At the top of the ramp they drop off into a container or onto the ground for waiting chickens (say) to eat. There are videos showing hens waiting for them and gobbling them up. The larvae are really nutritious too, high in calcium, good for egg laying birds.

Who are these insects? They are Black Soldier Flies and their grubs are sold under various names, such as Phoenix worms, Soldier Worms or BSFL. Many are raised to feed pet lizards and fish.

Universities are writing them up big time. A friend found them written up under the title “Forging a New Food Chain.” We were thinking of self sustaining food chains and here this came up!

He also showed me the most charming video of a tiny little girl feeding hens from a container of grubs. She said “This will make them very happy.”

Hey, George, it makes me happy too!

About the title, Gary Larson who drew The Far Side, made a cartoon of a female bug preparing to leave her husband who was watching tv. She is carrying their grubs and a suitcase. I miss The Far Side.

Did you ever see the movie The Electric Horseman? You may ask, “What has this to do with survival?” You be the judge if you have seen it. If you have not, please watch it. It stars Robert Redford and Jane Fonda.

Reason I mention it is the escape scene makes me cry every time I see it. Robert is an alcoholic ex-rodeo champion who does advertising events for a cereal company riding a beautiful horse whose appearance has been augmented with steroids.

His hat and outfit are outlined with electric lights, a very dramatic effect.

One day, the cowboy can’t stand it any more, the artificiality of it all, for him and his horse.

He rides off the stage on his horse, rides through the theater lobby and off into the dark streets of the city. As he rides into the night, he turns off the lights and disappears from view.

His sponsor has the police searching for the rider and his horse. Soon they have them surrounded in a small town. He opens the gate of the horse trailer and starts his dash for freedom.

The police spot them and pursue on motorcycles and cruisers. He dodges through peoples’ back yards and clothes lines until he comes to the edge of town. There is a ridge of land where he begins his high speed attempt at freedom., followed closely by cruisers. He coaxes his poor drugged up horse for the run of its life, and his.

I have tears as I write this.

Does this make sense, George, I mean the whole scene? He and the horse are my heroes, but then I think, do they also stand for Americans, people everywhere, who are dependent upon electricity and are degraded by artificiality?

They do escape, and he prepares to free the horse into the western open land, where there are wild horses. The heroine asks if the pampered horse can possibly survive such a harsh life. The Electric Horseman says, “At least he has a chance.”

Is freedom worth it, George? Do we also have a chance?