New Author: Royal

Hi, my name is Royal, and I’m a Prepper. I’ve now been officially branded and there’s no turning back :-)

I live in Sanpete County on an acre of land with my chickens, rabbits, dogs, cats, a large garden, the most beautiful woman in the world and 3 awesome children. I was born and raised in Huntington Beach, California and somehow ended up in Sanpete County where the population of the entire County is about one-tenth the size of the city I grew up in, and I couldn’t be more pleased with the change. Ok, so maybe I do miss the beach, the warm weather and planting a garden almost year round, but if I had all that here, I’d also have 300,000 neighbors, no land, an outrageous mortgage and no animals.

I love the outdoors. I love the sound of the breeze through the trees, the singing of the birds and the soothing peace, away from the noise of the city. Before I was old enough to join the Boy Scouts, I twisted my brother’s arm into going backpacking several times…through the city streets of Huntington Beach to my sister’s house where we camped in her backyard. I have fond memories of one campout in the local mountains as a boy where it was so cold that I ended up in my brother’s sleeping bag with everything on top, and we were still cold. Good times. I was privileged in Boy Scouts to backpack at Philmont Scout Ranch in New Mexico which was one of the most memorable trips I’ve ever been on. This last weekend backpacking with the Scouts was also an epic adventure. Nothing like scaling an insanely steep cliff after 12 solid hours of heavy rain and then driving out on what used to be a 40 mile dirt road which had transformed itself into a muddy wonderland. What an unforgettable adventure.

You will often find me enjoying the wind in my face and beautiful scenery as I pedal along on my bike. I worked at a bicycle shop for six years and raced downhill mountain bikes. I purchased my first car when I was 25 and commuted everywhere on a bicycle up until that time (a little easier to do in southern California than in Utah).

Gardening was an every Saturday experience growing up as my dad is an avid gardener. We were the only house, probably in the entire city, without a square inch of grass. Even the parking area next to the curb was filled with strawberries. We were weird enough with 9 kids in Huntington Beach without having to perfume the neighborhood with steer manure and raw kitchen scraps each year when it came time to prepare the soil for planting. I have learned to adapt to gardening in Utah and the challenges of a short growing season, different climate, different soil, etc.

I am an entrepreneur and have co-founded several start-ups in several different industries. I have done website marketing, design and programming for over 8 years through my company PageProz. I will soon be launching an emergency preparedness company called BeyondReady.com. I currently make a living through a combination of website development, business consulting and helping people make money through protecting families and businesses from two of our greatest financial threats.

My passion is sharing how to become truly prepared, for whatever challenges may come, with as many people as possible. Many of you will be familiar with emergency preparedness expert Jim Phillips. I was blessed to work directly with Jim at his last emergency preparedness company for 2 years. Much of what I know and have experienced related to preparedness, I owe to Jim. I have also attended many emergency preparedness expos and classes over the years, researched and tested hundreds of products and am an avid reader of preparedness books, etc. I have learned much and have endeavored to put this knowledge into practice so that I have my own personal experience with preparedness principles and products. Before you think I’m an expert or something, I, like all of you, have a tremendous amount to learn and a huge To-Do list of skills and products to acquire. I still consider myself a beginner but am anxious to share what I have experienced and together with you, learn and experience much more over the coming years.

My goal is to challenge each of you to take action; to go from “I read about this once” to “I tried this before and this is how I discovered it works best for me.” My commitment to you is to only present principles and products that I have tried myself, well, except for feminine hygiene products, products to control massive bleeding and maybe a few others where I’ll have to rely on someone else’s experience.

It is a privilege to join the other authors in sharing what we can to help you become better prepared for whatever challenges the future might bring. I challenge you to go do something today to become better prepared.