Fiddleback Survival & Prepping,
How cool is this thread?
I actually see many folks go out of their way to say they are not preppers. I am. But not in the traditional sense.
I just believe in versatility and independence. I try to buy stuff that is versatile and has more than one use. Like my coffee pot. All stainless with glass perk top. It goes from my kitchen stove to a campfire. I look for stuff like that.
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I grew up in a family where both parents lived through the Great Depression. Not GD2, the first one. Both were apparently hungry at times. They never forgot it.
When I was young, they had a pantry full of food stores. My dad actually had one closet for canned goods that had all the shelves tilted up in the rear so the canned goods rolled forward. When they got their tax return or other windfall they bought food. It was just their way.
I am not of the mindset to sit around constantly be waiting for a disaster to occur. I prep for life, not disasters. I live in the North Country and like to live a somewhat independent lifestyle. I like knowing that if the grid drops in the middle of the winter, I will survive. So forgive me if some of my thinking is slanted toward cold weather.
I am not a survivalist nut job. But I do think people should have enough stuff to take care of themselves and not have to depend on someone else or the government.
A few years back, just before Christmas, we had an ice storm. At approximately 06:00 the power went off. I was three minutes into a ten minute perk on my coffee, bummer! But since I use an old school coffee pot. I just went out to the shed and grabbed my camp stove and finished up with that.
It is amazing how much better your attitude is, when you face a power failure with a fresh hot pot of coffee. We made our breakfast on the camp stove too. And then I went about what I had to do the get through the outage.
I see and read about preppers who have all the cool gear. Three or four black rifles, kevlar helmets, plate armor, night vision, you name it. But no first aid kit, or first aid training. Or a $400.00 first aid kit and no training. not many have any way to deal with a broken tooth.
My point is that I believe the boring stuff will be more helpful in a bad scenario than the cool stuff. We stock canned goods, flour, sugar, salt, drinking water, toilet paper and other staples that are necessary to live life on a daily basis.
***I think everyone should learn how to bake bread. I said this on another forum, and got laughed at. Because, how do you bake bread if the power is off? So I showed them some examples. Again starting out a disaster with hot coffee and warm fresh baked bread improves the mindset immensely.
It can be done on a gas grill,
Or my preferred method, the Dutch Oven,
And if yeast bread is too daunting, there is the baking powder biscuit route,
And back to the versatility thing, flour even makes hot dogs better,
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Seeing pictures of empty store shelves before a storm just reinforces for me, that I am on the right path. I am not where I want to be. But I get closer all the time. For me it is not so much about a disaster as it is being independent.
I think you can be a "Prepper" without being a "Nut Job" although the media makes it seem hard.
I have just come to look at it differently. Don't prep for bad things. Prep for good things. With back up heat, light and cooking sources, we had a relaxing time through our ice induced power outage. I knew ice was expected so I filled the tub the night before so I could flush the toilet. But I even have a backup for that. It's called an outhouse.
I will add more here as I dig through my old posts on stuff like this. Or I will stop if you guys see no value in my northern slant. We definitely face different challenges. But I also think a lot of it overlaps.
:topsy_turvy:
. I grew up in Oklahoma, land of the twisters, so prepping was a normal way of life. So to this day I still make sure I have 2 weeks worth of food and water at all times. I also make sure my car has a grab bag with extra cloths, water, first aid kit, food, and a poncho. You never know when you might break down.
