Any "preparedness enthusiasts" on the board?

barefootcyborg5000 said:

In reply to Appleseed :

Eh, there's those, but out here in Utah, at least in the more affluent neighborhoods, roughly 1/8 of the population probably has at least 6 months worth of food and water. Now, MOST of them likely have as many weapons as people, but I know a bunch that don't have any. We are a self described "peculiar people" though so, you know. Odd. 

I was told it's a Mormon custom. A friend married one and they keep a year's worth of food in their garage.

Am I a Prepper, with a capital P? No. Do I expect a society collapse? No. Do I lose sleep worrying about hurricanes, earthquakes, or political unrest? Also no. 

Am I prepared to take care of myself and my family in most circumstances? Yes. Much like keeping a fire extinguisher around, it's the prudent thing to do and not super expensive. 

Bad storms or natural disasters that shut down infrastructure for up to a month. I'm good. I can feed myself and mine plus some. While we won't be eating like kings, we will be fed. If the house is destroyed, things will be a little more difficult but I can still shelter and feed us for several weeks. Part of being prepared is not living where the house is likely to be destroyed by a disaster. Terms longer than a month will require some form of assistance or moving on to stage two. 

If the world goes to E36 M3 and society collapses, my family and I have the materials and a rough plan to survive. We will get out of the cities and pull back to one of the family farms and become hunter-gathers until the farm starts to produce. The guns I have are primarily for feeding my family and I have several thousand rounds for all of them. The family consists of around 30 people from all walks of life. Everything from engineers to doctors and nurses. I have a library of old fashion books on how things were done before the advent of modern technology and what foodstuffs are available in the wild. Little things like how to set a snare and start a fire, or what mushrooms you can eat, all the way up to building a house or a wood gas generator. In the long term, knowledge will do more for survival than canned goods. 

ShawnG said:

As for "prepping" one thing a lot of these folks seem to miss is:

No matter how much of a "billy badass" you think you are, YOU CAN'T DO IT ALONE.

If you want to "be ready when the E36 M3 hits the fan", stop researching the best tactical pencil organizer and go make friends with your neighbors instead.

Want to be able to handle any situation that comes along? Get yourselves some friends you can count on.

Since we've moved here, I've made good friends with my neighbors and they've been a great help to us getting settled in a new community and in return, I help them out whenever I  can.

The whole image that some of these YouTube cowboys create is nothing more than a lot of false bravado.

Oh, you silly Canadian...That's not how Clint Eastwood does it.

In reply to barefootcyborg5000 :

Watching Matt's Off-road Recovery and Fab-Rats on YouTube has taught me how weird you Utah people are. The weirdest thing is that you all seem to say "may-jure" instead of "measure". 

The main problem with apocalyptic prepping...which apocalypse are you prepping for? Nuclear Winter? Biological attack? Earth's polarity flipping? 

I fall in with most of the responses already posted. I'm better prepared than most, but I don't dedicate my life to it. As i've gotten older, the concept of riding out a hellscape seems less and less appealing

j_tso said:

barefootcyborg5000 said:

In reply to Appleseed :

Eh, there's those, but out here in Utah, at least in the more affluent neighborhoods, roughly 1/8 of the population probably has at least 6 months worth of food and water. Now, MOST of them likely have as many weapons as people, but I know a bunch that don't have any. We are a self described "peculiar people" though so, you know. Odd. 

I was told it's a Mormon custom. A friend married one and they keep a year's worth of food in their garage.

My best friends family does the same as does he. They are mormon .... well, he's not but the rest of the family is. 

In reply to Scotty Con Queso :

Next town over is Hurricane. Odd name for a place in Utah. But that's only if you're literate. Locals pronounce it hair-uh-kin. I'm a CA transplant. Even after 22 years it still sounds wrong. 

calteg said:

The main problem with apocalyptic prepping...which apocalypse are you prepping for? Nuclear Winter? Biological attack? Earth's polarity flipping? 

I fall in with most of the responses already posted. I'm better prepared than most, but I don't dedicate my life to it. As i've gotten older, the concept of riding out a hellscape seems less and less appealing

+1 

We have a reasonable supply of food, some short term, some long term.  Big issue is water, but a hand pump is on our list.  We have some contingencies plans for various events but nothing firmed up or drilled to perfection.  As someone said about fire extinguishers, some of these things put you in what most would consider the prepper category.  If you get potassium iodide, you're a prepper...but when you look at how much a supply for a person (even a family) costs, it's almost ridiculous to not have some on hand "just in case".  

Appleseed said:

Nope. If it all goes to hell, I'll live for only a bit longer than 2 years. That's how long refrigerated insulin lasts. Then I die a lingering, painful death. There is no point in wasting time prepping for anything.

Are you actually allowed to buy two years worth of insulin...?

bobzilla said:

In reply to Robbie (Forum Supporter) :

If you've never lived in the rural midwest, actually rural and not in a town rural, it's no fantasy. We know that when spring storms roll in, there will be outages. We know when the snow rolls in we will be stuck at the house for several days and may lose power as well. Being prepared for that isn't a fantasy. Having food, water, power to self sustain for a week or more that's far from being a fantasy. It's a necessity. 

Apparently these people have never been a boy scout. You know, their motto "always be prepared"? That's not fantasy thats being pragmatic.  But what would I know... I'm just some dumb prepper hick that apparently hopes the world will fail or something. 

Uhhhhh, eagle scout here, and it seems you may have missed the part I wrote about how it is absolutely good to have supplies to handle a few weeks of reduced services ...

In reply to Robbie (Forum Supporter) :

but that is a small level of prepper which you stated was a fantasy. So which is it? 

Those that are getting their info from youtubers and passing judgement on everyone based off of that please stop. Those people are only trying to be click bait. If they were what they proclaim to be A.) they'd be too busy to run a YT channel and 2.) wouldn't disclose what where and how much.

Just seems everyone is getting so judgy lately. What happened to "you do you"?

We have a water source that requires no electricity and do water reclamation.

We grow a lot of fruits, vegetables and nuts. Have about a year of MRE type food stores

Have a freezer stocked with beef, venison, pork and goat. Either I shot it, a family member raised it or it was locally sourced.

Keep some old survival books around and have a cell phone and laptop with all of wikipedia and some maps and survival guides in a faraday enclosure with a battery and solar array for charging.

Wife became a ham radio operator, which I thought was kinda dumb at first but it has turned out to very useful especially for storms

Keep a stock of medical supplies. Wife is in the medical industry so she's gonna have to be the nurse.

We don't do it because of the end of the world, although I do think society would devolve much quicker than most people think in an emergency even if it was only temporary, we want to be more self sufficient. To alfas point, I still order pizza and enjoy the luxuries of modern life but if someone turned the tap off tomorrow, I do have the means to be self sufficient just with a much narrower diet.

Most of the neighbors do similar things and we trade. I'm still getting my grapes going, so right now I trade with my neighbors for theirs, peaches, pears and pecans seem to be a big hit with them.

I have too many pears than I can use, so for this year's harvest I'm going to try and distill some of it. Maybe I can get some of my small gas engines to run on it, use it as an antiseptic, and maybe make some hooch. 

Also have a family whiskey source.

Going to add honey production this year and chickens. Family all does chickens already.

My brother is experimenting with tilapia production 

barefootcyborg5000 said:

In reply to Scotty Con Queso :

Next town over is Hurricane. Odd name for a place in Utah. But that's only if you're literate. Locals pronounce it hair-uh-kin. I'm a CA transplant. Even after 22 years it still sounds wrong. 

Next game for the "normal" people on the board: place your guesses as to how Utah pronounces Tooele (another town name).

stroker said:

Appleseed said:

Nope. If it all goes to hell, I'll live for only a bit longer than 2 years. That's how long refrigerated insulin lasts. Then I die a lingering, painful death. There is no point in wasting time prepping for anything.

Are you actually allowed to buy two years worth of insulin...?

No, you can't .

That's implying that refrigeration is available at all. 2 years is how long it lasts under those ideal conditions. Get it room temperature, I have 28 days before I start dying.

In reply to bobzilla :

My point is that if you think having 3 cases of Jack Daniels and a cabinet of 22 ammo is going to keep you alive perpetually after a societal collapse, you are in fantasy land. Even if you scale it up to billionaire-level ideas, trying to prep for a societal collapse is still fantasy. 

I don't consider everyone who "is prepared" to be a prepper. 

Preparing for societal collapse is fantasy. Preparing for a job interview or a trip around the world or a winter in the rural Midwest is part of life. Somewhere in the middle, we have to admit that we cannot prepare for all scenarios, and it is unrealistic to try. 

To me, a prepper is someone who spends their fun time preparing for possible futures. And that's fine and sometimes fun. My point was just that they often focus too much on stuff and not nearly enough on the other humans on who they will absolutely depend.

Opti said:

We don't do it because of the end of the world, although I do think society would devolve much quicker than most people think in an emergency even if it was only temporary, we want to be more self sufficient.

yeah, NOLA after Hurricane Katrina comes to mind.

In reply to Robbie (Forum Supporter) :

In the long view of history we've had a couple of events that almost wiped humanity out. Are they common? No. But back then humans were much more adept at surviving off the land. 

Can you plan for everything? No. If something crazy happens will a big part of survival be based on luck and geography? Absolutely. Does it hurt to prepare for natural disasters or regional problems? Not at all. I also don't think it's a big deal to spend a small amount of time educating yourself and having some supplies incase a rare event happens and we literally have societal collapse incase you happen to be one of the lucky few that survives. 

I'm not the type to have a bunker or fortress, or think my house close to an urban area will be defensible or viable or even spend much time thinking about it, but we have enough to weather most storms amd we do have a plan and place to get away from society and set up something more longterm.

If nothing like that ever happens, the worst case scenario is I spend much less on food than most people and its higher quality,  don't have to deal with most food shortages, I don't have to get into fist fights for TP, and I spend less on my utilities, but I'm a hick from TX and that's how I grew up longer before they made fun of preppers on TV.

In reply to Opti :

It seems like you put a lot of thought into this and have some cool stuff going. 

Do you also prepare for possible futures with things like insurance policies, political involvement, business development, personal skill/knowledge building, something else?

My personality makes me a "here and now" problem solver but some people are really good at thinking about the future. Would love to hear some ideas.

j_tso said:

Opti said:

We don't do it because of the end of the world, although I do think society would devolve much quicker than most people think in an emergency even if it was only temporary, we want to be more self sufficient.

yeah, NOLA after Hurricane Katrina comes to mind.

Well, prepping should be more focused on what disasters could happen to you.  I would not prepare for a hurricane even here in Michigan.  Flooding- sure, in limited areas.  Tornados- sure- but that's also a limited path.  In terms of widespread disasters, this recent one is the most likely- ice.  Blizzards seem bad, but this whole area is well equipped for it.  Super cold- same.  IMHO, the worst of the worst would be an ice storm followed by a deep freeze event.  And if that actually happens, the first thing I would do is drain all of the water, and then drive someplace that has power.

Hurricane areas have it worse, but that kind of widespread disaster isn't likely in most areas.  And look at how devastated Puerto Rico was after Maria, and it didn't completely break down into chaos.  It took a LOT of time, but it eventually came back.

Being prepared for a couple of weeks of living on your own makes sense.  Doing it for the utter break down of society or the grid does not.

Growing your own food means you can eat food as it's intended to be eaten (picked ripe).  That's better than doing it for being prepared.  The side benefit that you are reducing food shipping is a bonus.

In reply to Robbie (Forum Supporter) :

There are a lot of misconceptions on what being prepared for life actually is. It's become a derogatory term/phrase lately and I don't understand why. Those that think they can prepare for everything will never get it. You can't. You do the best you can for what is most likely to affect you and the rest you figure out along the way. 
 

I would venture a guess that having made previous peeps for common sense things can translate into learning what you need in the ways you don't already know. No, I didn't prep for an emp or mce but I did prep for being out of power for a few weeks and unable to go elsewhere because of weather/conditions. Probably can build on that other knowledge to build upon it and succeed. Be adaptable and open to learning. Not sure how that became such a horrible thing. 

Opti said:

In reply to Robbie (Forum Supporter) :

In the long view of history we've had a couple of events that almost wiped humanity out. Are they common? No. But back then humans were much more adept at surviving off the land. 

Can you plan for everything? No. If something crazy happens will a big part of survival be based on luck and geography? Absolutely. Does it hurt to prepare for natural disasters or regional problems? Not at all. I also don't think it's a big deal to spend a small amount of time educating yourself and having some supplies incase a rare event happens and we literally have societal collapse incase you happen to be one of the lucky few that survives. 

I'm not the type to have a bunker or fortress, or think my house close to an urban area will be defensible or viable or even spend much time thinking about it, but we have enough to weather most storms amd we do have a plan and place to get away from society and set up something more longterm.

If nothing like that ever happens, the worst case scenario is I spend much less on food than most people and its higher quality,  don't have to deal with most food shortages, I don't have to get into fist fights for TP, and I spend less on my utilities, but I'm a hick from TX and that's how I grew up longer before they made fun of preppers on TV.

Well said. 

j_tso said:

Opti said:

We don't do it because of the end of the world, although I do think society would devolve much quicker than most people think in an emergency even if it was only temporary, we want to be more self sufficient.

yeah, NOLA after Hurricane Katrina comes to mind.

That is my "prepping" goal.  If I can be self sufficient for 2-3 weeks (even if I'm not feeling great at the end), I'm satisfied.  With the amount of normal groceries we keep in the house, that covers at least two weeks, then we can dip into the long term storage that will last another week or so.  My freeze dried stuff is nearing the end of its use by dates, which sucks, as there is a lot more demand for that now, so prices are a lot higher than they were 20 years ago.  I keep a few days of potable water on hand, and live in an area that gets enough rain I should be able to set up some sort of water reclamation if needed.  I try to have one full or nearly full 20 lb propane tank around at all times, mostly for convenience when grilling, but it could come in handy in an emergency.  When I bought my house, I took into account flooding and tornado activity (I'm on a slight slope, but not at the top or bottom of a hill), so the most likely natural disasters in my region should not have a direct effect on me.  I also try not to run the gas tanks down too low on the daily drivers.

I do think about buying a generator occasionally, but we are on the same part of the grid as some medical buildings and a sewage pumping station, so are pretty high priority for getting power back.  Still, might get one if I can clear space to store it someday.

I know a decent amount of my neighbors, and we are all happy to help each other if it is reasonable.

I have no interest in being around if we have a full on societal collapse.

Edit:  I'll add one suggestion for anyone who wants mobility after a natural disaster.  I read an account of someone who helped out after Katrina, and he mentioned constantly having to plug holes in tires due to running over screws/nails/other sharp objects littered on the street from the storm.  I keep a plug kit or two around, and have 12v and rechargeable compressors.

I carry around 2-3 weeks of food (let's be honest, probably more) with me wherever I go. It conveniently sits right above my belt area!

In general, as a human on earth you've got about: 2 minutes without air, 2 hours without shelter, 2 days without water, and 2 weeks without food. So those are the immediate priorities, in that order.

matthewmcl said:

barefootcyborg5000 said:

In reply to Scotty Con Queso :

Next town over is Hurricane. Odd name for a place in Utah. But that's only if you're literate. Locals pronounce it hair-uh-kin. I'm a CA transplant. Even after 22 years it still sounds wrong. 

Next game for the "normal" people on the board: place your guesses as to how Utah pronounces Tooele (another town name).

Pick me, coach! 
Oh man, I know you feel this pain with me. These people!

In reply to alfadriver :

Not so much the hurricane damage, but society devolving is what I was focusing on. I referenced Katrina because of the stories of lawlessness that came from there, some were exaggerated though. 

All the more reason to follow ShawnG's advice further up about knowing your neighbors so you can band together.