Any "preparedness enthusiasts" on the board?

Saw an article from the Washington Post the other day titled "The Preppers Were Right All Along." SWMBO and I got more into it a few years ago, not because we thought the world was going to end, everything was just so much more expensive, so being more self sufficient was quite nice. Saw some more talk about it with the alarmists yelling the banking industry is going to collapse and plunge us into the dark ages, and I was wondering if any of the hive does any "prepper" stuff.

Saw the life change thread, we have considered doing something similar but maintaining our current life in town and have a vacation/bug out place.

IBTL 

I'm at a very low level because I'm lazy, we have some food and some first aid and some water and a couple things that make loud noises.

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 preping for anything.

I just read a book called "escape fantasies of tech billionaires".

https://books.google.com/books/about/Survival_of_the_Richest.html?id=21pjEAAAQBAJ&source=kp_book_description

While it's main point isn't about prepping, it does make a very good point that prepping is mostly fantasy, no matter the level.

Even if you're a billionaire now and can buy a private island or 3000 acre underground lair or make a compound on Mars, eventually your own survival after "the event" comes down to how much you can trust the people around you to not kill you in your sleep.

Which means you still need to be able to provide and demonstrate value to your immediate neighbors. 

So, is it good to have supplies to handle a few weeks of reduced services? Absolutely. But if it gets any worse than that, it's going to be better to cooperate than to hide or fight. 

There's gotta be some crossover with people who are all in with EVs.

Copious solar panels, a shed full of batteries (with spares), and temperature controlled tire storage should give a good 10 years of mobility.

I remember an interview during Hurricane Maria aftermath with a guy in Puerto Rico who said his neighbors called him crazy for spending $30k on solar panels, but at the time they were all lined up at his house to charge their phones.

In reply to Robbie (Forum Supporter) :

I can weld, so I've got some community barter value.

I liked the one where a guy buried a bunch of shipping containers full of stuff, just in case.

Apparently he was unfamiliar with the water table in his area.

Robbie (Forum Supporter) said:

 

I just read a book called "escape fantasies of tech billionaires".

https://books.google.com/books/about/Survival_of_the_Richest.html?id=21pjEAAAQBAJ&source=kp_book_description

While it's main point isn't about prepping, it does make a very good point that prepping is mostly fantasy, no matter the level.

Even if you're a billionaire now and can buy a private island or 3000 acre underground lair or make a compound on Mars, eventually your own survival after "the event" comes down to how much you can trust the people around you to not kill you in your sleep.

Which means you still need to be able to provide and demonstrate value to your immediate neighbors. 

So, is it good to have supplies to handle a few weeks of reduced services? Absolutely. But if it gets any worse than that, it's going to be better to cooperate than to hide or fight. 

 

 

Yeah, not to mention, I really have no desire to live in some post-Apocalyptic hell scape.

Although some people seem to fantasize about living in The Walking Dead for some reason.

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.

Most prepers are just people with a lot of guns and bullets.

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. 
 

As for myself, I don't know if id say prepper. I like to be self sufficient. I like to know how to do things. I can and have built fires from scratch in the rain, I can swim very well, maintain direction by stars, some stuff. I didn't make a very good boyscout though. I want to grow more of our food and fully intend to switch to only eating hunted meat. As for the rest, I like to have several weeks worth of stuff on hand for whatever reason. We don't have the recommended 1 year supply. Partially can't afford it, partially don't have room (especially water) and partially just a bit too lazy. 
 

Hmmm...this thread isn't what I was expecting when I clicked on the link.  I came in here all set to talk about colonoscopy prep.  Imagine my disappointment.

Carry on...

I believe only in prepping realistically. I'm pretty confident that we have shelf-stable food, reserve drinking water, a propane grill with backup tank, and batteries to ride us out for at least a week or two if we were to lose power and water. Plus basic first aid supplies, hand tools, multiple cars with enough fuel to last a week, and bicycles to travel bike paths in the event roads are closed. The Boy Scout Handbook is on my bookshelf.

I agree with the general "I'm good for a month or two inconvenience but if it's a total collapse of civilization I'd just as soon check out" line of thought.

I live in town but my sister has a place not too far away with high ground, very limited access, and sufficient space to live an agrarian lifestyle.   I can bring security and manpower to the compound.  So that's the E36 M3 hits the fan plan.

I have no idea where in the world I would find the time to even THINK about prepping. 

SKJSS (formerly Klayfish) said:

Hmmm...this thread isn't what I was expecting when I clicked on the link.  I came in here all set to talk about colonoscopy prep.  Imagine my disappointment.

Carry on...

Seemingly different topics, but both still fit under the umbrella of BOHICA, so maybe not so different at all.

Robbie (Forum Supporter) said:

 

I just read a book called "escape fantasies of tech billionaires".

https://books.google.com/books/about/Survival_of_the_Richest.html?id=21pjEAAAQBAJ&source=kp_book_description

While it's main point isn't about prepping, it does make a very good point that prepping is mostly fantasy, no matter the level.

Even if you're a billionaire now and can buy a private island or 3000 acre underground lair or make a compound on Mars, eventually your own survival after "the event" comes down to how much you can trust the people around you to not kill you in your sleep.

Which means you still need to be able to provide and demonstrate value to your immediate neighbors. 

So, is it good to have supplies to handle a few weeks of reduced services? Absolutely. But if it gets any worse than that, it's going to be better to cooperate than to hide or fight.

One billionaire had the idea to build a compound deep in the Alaskan wilderness and fit all his staff with Suicide Squad bomb collars as a solution to this. Brilliant, but evil:

https://www.theguardian.com/news/2022/sep/04/super-rich-prepper-bunkers-apocalypse-survival-richest-rushkoff

The ones who just buy a place in the NZ countryside crack me up. As if NZ doesn't have locals who would set a trap on their airfields relatively early in the sequence of the E36 M3 hitting the fan.

When I was coming up on the end of my first enlistment, I was reading a lot of post-apocalyptic books.  I think the one that stuck with me most was Dies The Fire

I got really into them and I realized that if civilization as we know it ended the most likely way I was going to die was from lack of medical aid.  Accordingly I thought "I should at least become a nurse so I know some of that E36 M3, right?"

And I got kind of into it.  Started looking at nursing schools back home, figuring out how I would pay for it, etc.  Then one day I had the thought.

"Hold on.  I dont like people very much.  Individuals are fine, but I don't like people.  If I'm a nurse im going to have to take care of people until the world 'ends' and that sounds f'ing horrible.  I'm gonna do something else with my life."

And with that I stepped back, realized how much the realistic-apocalypse books were berkeleying with my head and got back into fantasy series.  That was the end of any of my prepper bullE36 M3 (except what is normal for Hurricane survival.)

The fantasy series I started reading did just as much to influence my mind and I still want to be a wizard, I just know thats much more unlikely than needing to prevent someone from bleeding out after a post-apocalyptic battle for survival.

I generally try to be moderately prepared: decent amount of drinking water, some long storage food, I have a propane camp stove with a bunch of the little 1 lb bottles. TP for days.  I remember the first days of the pandemic three years ago and how quickly store shelves went bare.  It was mainly just inconvenient for me as far as real necessities were concerned. 

Robbie (Forum Supporter) said:

 

I just read a book called "escape fantasies of tech billionaires".

https://books.google.com/books/about/Survival_of_the_Richest.html?id=21pjEAAAQBAJ&source=kp_book_description

While it's main point isn't about prepping, it does make a very good point that prepping is mostly fantasy, no matter the level.

Even if you're a billionaire now and can buy a private island or 3000 acre underground lair or make a compound on Mars, eventually your own survival after "the event" comes down to how much you can trust the people around you to not kill you in your sleep.

Which means you still need to be able to provide and demonstrate value to your immediate neighbors. 

So, is it good to have supplies to handle a few weeks of reduced services? Absolutely. But if it gets any worse than that, it's going to be better to cooperate than to hide or fight. 

 

 

I don't think there is anything about "prepping" that excludes being a good neighbor, or being cooperative.  In fact by virtue of the skills necessary to be good at it, one would be a huge asset to neighbors. 

The media portrayal of a "prepper" is a lone wolf gun nut waiting patiently for it all to go down so he can sit on his throne of beans and bullets, but in reality most people that are well prepared do it to be more self sufficient, and it is a lifestyle of choice.

What are the downsides to self sufficiency? I don't see any myself, and for those wanting to lower their carbon footprint it's tough to beat growing your own food.

I trust most of the people around me not to kill me, but if I were to find myself in a FEMA camp I am pretty sure I would not feel the same way.

One thing I would like to point out- unless you are farming all of your food, you are not self sufficient.  All of the preppers I have seen still rely on someone else to supply all of their supplies.  Granted, they get enough to last a longer time than most, they are still not able to live totally on their own forever.

Just saw one channel that stores about a year of wheat to grind their own flour for food.  They mail order the wheat.  Save a step- mail order the flour- well stored, it will last a very long time, too.

There are real people who are capable of doing that, but I'm betting they are too busy to actually post anything, as growing food is a very time intensive job.  

Oh, another thing- most views of the apocalypse seems to think we will forget everything we have learned over the millennia.  The reality is that the grid (and by that I mean the entire system, not just electricity) may go down locally for an amount of time, but given what we know and have learned- it can always be repaired.  The only think that we can do that will really end civilization is a global nuclear war.

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. 

In reply to Ian F (Forum Supporter) :

Yeah, we never went without anything. Wife buys TP in bulk, always has. Same with cleaning supplies etc. We always have food on hand, it may not be what we want at that time, but we won' go hungry for a while. 

I can't understand people that live literally day to day with food and household supplies. What do you do if theres an outage, or a shortage? Those people scare me more than all the other issues.