My biggest frustration with prepping

Our friend, MD Creekmore over at www.thesurvivalistblog.net has posed the question "What is your biggest frustration with prepping?" Here is the answer I sent him:

"Like so many have already said, my biggest problem is lack of time. I work 9-10 hour days, including a weekend a month and one evening a week, and have a 45 minute to 1 hour commute each way. Just finding time to cut firewood is a challenge, much less gardening, putting up fence, exercising and all the other things I need to do to feel more prepared. My job also requires that I do a fair amount of outside reading to stay current. And I do have a family I need to spend time with.
I would very much like to take advantage of my county’s Volunteer Firefighter program, both to learn some much-needed EMT skills and to help out my neighbors, but know that I will never have the time. The same is true for the blacksmithing classes held at a local folk-arts school.
As Poe pointed out above, no matter how much food you have laid by, you will never be truly self-sustaining unless you have a working garden, and I have had to work hard to make this a priority. Maybe I can help out a few other readers by revealing some little tricks I have learned to making the most out of what little time we get to spend in the garden:
* Try no-till gardening for grains. I scalp the grass down as low as it will go, and cover the clippings with a tarp for a couple of weeks to kill whatever is left, then sow my grain crops directly into the debris. There is no time spent behind the tiller, and you’re going to have to mow the grass anyway, right? I have had good luck with this and have consistent good yields of buckwheat, millet and hard red winter wheat.
* Used raised beds/lasagna/Three sisters gardening for vegetables. Again, scalp the grass down with the lawnmower, cover the clippings with several sheets of newspaper, and cover this with a couple of inches of compost (buy bags at Home Depot, or if you can, fill 5 gallon buckets with leaf mold and topsoil from the woods, I do the latter from a nearby creekbottom). Double-digging is nice, but time consuming, and can be avoided with no decrease in soil quality. Let the beds “settle” for a couple of weeks and rake in seeds of corn, beans and squash, or the companionable plants of your choice.
I use these two methods exclusively, and grow food as good as any of my neighbors, who are dependent on tractors and tillers for garden soil preparation.
Lack of time is my greatest frustration, but lack of money and spousal nonsupport are close behind. I don’t need to explain the money part, but it causes me a lot of heartache that my wife plainly sees the writing on the wall, but won’t help me try to erase it."

What do you think your biggest frustration is with being prepared?

Pray for Israel,
Gallowglass